Jobs added, unemployment rate climbs

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02 Nov 2012

by admin

The sluggish United States economy added 171,000 jobs in October while unemployment rate went up from 7.8 to 7.9 percent in September, the labor department said in a press release just 96 hours before the elections.

The report is sure to be main topic in the final hours of the election campaign by President Obama and Republican candidate Mitt Romney.
Market watchers were optimistic that during the holiday season another 125,000 jobs would be added. But many companies remained hesitant for wage increase to their staff members.
Read the full text of the news release below…
WASHINGTON — Secretary of Labor Hilda L. Solis issued the following statement on the October 2012 Employment Situation report released today:
“Our nation’s labor market added 171,000 nonfarm payroll jobs in October, while the unemployment rate remained essentially unchanged at 7.9 percent. Additionally, our economy added back more than 84,000 jobs in August and September than had been initially reported.
“October’s report marks 32 straight months of private sector job growth totaling more than 5.4 million jobs. We’ve also seen 13 consecutive quarters of private gross domestic product growth. In other words, we’ve been consistently growing jobs and our economy for several years running.
“Our unemployment rate has dropped by more than two percentage points under President Obama. Unemployment Insurance claims are at a four-year low. Consumer sentiment is at a four-year high. We’ve added more than a half-million manufacturing jobs over the last 32 months. And we just posted the largest 12-month increase in housing permits since 1983.
“We’ve transformed a terrible crisis into a stable and durable recovery. To state otherwise is to wage war on the facts. We’ve erased all of the private sector job losses since the president took office and created an additional 1.2 million new jobs.
“We know what works, and the president has a plan to accelerate our progress by investing in education and job training, and by creating good-paying 21st century jobs in health care, energy, technology and manufacturing. Our recovery depends on building a strong and educated middle class that creates enough demand for the private sector to keep adding new jobs. These efforts are foundational to our success in a 21st century economy.”