The U.S. unemployment rate fell to its lowest level in more than 3½ years in September as the economy continued to add jobs, a potential boost for President Barack Obama's campaign to win a second term. Link
The unemployment rate is at it's lowest point since January of 2009. With 7.8% of the population unemployed in September, a great boost in moral seems to be in order for President Obama. How do you feel these positive changes in unemployment will effect voters choices? Or do you think this number is still too high for people to feel optimistic about the future?
This number is actually concerning to me. The reason why is that unemployment rates do not take into account people who have stopped looking for work. This point has been driven home by the republican campaign and Romney himself has echoed this point recently. Elections are about number spinning though, so American optimism about these numbers should become determined after the next debates, because i can't imagine either side will not mention it.
ReplyDeleteI have a feeling most people either wouldn't know that or wouldn't even think about that fact, even though it is a good one Travis brought up. For the sake of the election, I think this does bring up more optimism and support for Obama until/unless Romney brings forth the point Travis brought and potentially others at to what that number actually shows. With a month before the election though, this right now is a plus for Obama but we'll see how it gets spinned in commercials or the next debate.
ReplyDeleteI agree, this number will increase the optimism and support for Obama and Romney will be forced to step up his game. Most people aren't aware of what this number represents and will increase their support for Obama. Any improvement increases hopes for a better future, at this point. I think this will definitely be a new topic for the media and for the next debate like aaron mentioned.
ReplyDeleteIt is so hard to analyze figures like that of unemployment, when there are so many variables to quantify, without even considering extraneous effects. Romney’s plan to create “12 million jobs over the next four years” however, was a point better analyzed in the most recent October article of the Times about. According to independent economic forecasters, it is predicted the economy will gain about this many jobs over the next four years—regardless of who is our President. We are in a struggling but slowing improving economy. It is hard to say whether either candidate’s economic policy can be credited with these future improvements.
ReplyDeleteOne thing is for certain, these figures can not inherently hurt Obama in any serious regard. He can talk about pulling us out of a ‘trough’, and into the start of a ‘peak’ if he would like to, but Romney can also spin this to shed light on a ‘laxidasical’, or ‘he’s-done-nothing-for-us’ approach. That’s the thing about figures and political spin, if we learned nothing of this from the debate earlier this week. I heard so many studies, figures, and data that worked perfectly in favor of the rhetoric behind either candidate. One can point to any study, regardless of size and make it work for their own argumentation.. As far as “American optimism for the future”, recent Pew polls have suggested that American’s feel a record optimism now, in comparison to the previous couple of years. This optimism is probably better linked to our slow progression out of the darkness of the recession, and a renewed confidence in our political system for its looming changes to be made in the near future. One thing is for certain—the economy is the main focus, and regardless of the solution, it’s clear that there will be new attempts to excel our country financially. This has brought a lot of people hope.
In a new vein, I am skeptical if Obama’s focus on job creation in the specific sectors of “education, training, energy and other areas to speed the recovery” will really help amend our current predicament. In our country any job-seeker can move from an area towards potential employment, and it is clear that people are interchangeably part of a larger workforce. People are mobile and will move from anywhere for work. I operate under the impression that our unemployment problem is a larger national issue, and the only solution is to focus on the bigger picture over specific industries. “Like a game of musical chairs, increasing stock of jobs in any one place neither causes the music to stop more frequently, nor increases the number of chairs relative to the number of players” (Molotch, The City as a Growth Model, 1976).