The nation's unemployment rate fell to 7.8% last month, the lowest in nearly four years — giving President Obama’s campaign a welcomed boost after Mitt Romney’s triumph in their first debate.
While the nation added a relatively meager number of jobs in September, Obama trumpeted the decline in the unemployment rate from 8.1% in August as evidence his policies are working in pulling America back from the economic abyss.
“I believe that as a nation, we are moving forward again,” he said Friday at a high-energy rally in Fairfax, Va.
Romney took a more pessimistic view, seizing on lackluster growth in jobs — 114,000 in September, according to the report Friday morning by the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics
“This is not what a real recovery looks like,” he said.
The decline in unemployment was the second major October surprise to shake up the campaign in 36 hours, providing a jolt almost as seismic as Romney’s unexpected victory in Wednesday night’s debate.
The decline was so surprising, some conservatives accused the Obama administration of cooking the books to improve the President’s political prospects. The U.S. labor secretary called the accusation ridiculous.
With the new numbers, September became the first month of Obama’s administration in which the unemployment rate was below 8%.
The weak economic recovery has long been the central theme of Romney’s campaign — but on Friday the President warned his rivals not to jeer a report that contained good news for the American worker.
“We found out that the unemployment rate has fallen to its lowest level since I took office,” he said to roars from the crowd in northern Virginia. “More Americans entered the workforce. More people are getting jobs.”
He added: “Today’s news certainly is not an excuse to try to talk down the economy to score a few political points. It’s a reminder that this country has come too far to turn back now.”
Romney’s campaign has been reengerized by his strong debate performance. A weak employment report could have added to the momentum.
Instead, the numbers forced him to abandon one of his favorite stump-speech lines in which he derided “the 43 straight months with unemployment over 8%.”
But he still made it clear that, despite the jobs report, more work had to be done.
“I know right now you’re thinking about one job: your job,” Romney told an audience in coal country in southwest Virginia, continuing his recent effort to make a more personal connection with voters.
