U.S. Unemployment Rate Falls to 7.8%, Below When Obama Took Office
by News Editor
WSJ – The nation’s unemployment rate fell to its lowest level since January 2009, suggesting job growth picked up over the summer and shifting questions in the presidential race about which candidate can best fix the nation’s ailing economy.
The unemployment rate slid to 7.8% in September, falling below 8% for the first time since President Barack Obama’s inauguration, the Labor Department said Friday. Employers added a seasonally adjusted 114,000 jobs last month, a tepid pace that was countered by the fact that figures for previous months were boosted above initial estimates. Those figures reflected that the nation added 181,000 jobs in July and 142,000 jobs in August, showing that job growth in the third quarter was far higher than in the spring.