President Obama continues to tackle unemployment.
The Obama administration seems poised to continue its successful trek of adding jobs and overseeing overall growth of the U.S. economy, according to the Labor Department report.
The latest report, released Friday, shows the U.S. economy adding 248,000 in September, sending the jobless rate down two-tenths of a point to 5.9 percent, the lowest rate since July 2008. The number of unemployed persons decreased by 329,000 to 9.3 million. Over the year, the unemployment rate and the number of unemployed persons were down by 1.3 percentage points and 1.9 million, respectively, the department noted.
“We continue to see important and meaningful ripple effects of a growing economy,” Labor Secretary Thomas Perez said in an interview Friday. “The remaining challenge now is to ensure that the rising tide that we clearly see lifts all boats.”
While the latest figures found support from top Democrats, Republicans quickly seized on key negative points. According the report, the average hourly earnings dropped one cent in September to $24.53. Additionally, the number of persons employed part time for economic reasons (sometimes referred to as involuntary part-time workers) was little changed in September at 7.1 million.
“President Obama inherited a tough economy, no doubt. But his economic leadership has held our economic recovery back during the last five years,” Rep. Kevin Brady, a Texas Republican and chairman of the Congressional Joint Economic Committee, said in a statement. “He can spin it as much as he likes, but the worst recovery of President Obama’s life is his own,”
The report, the latest to show the U.S. unemployment rate dropping, is likely to boost confidence among administration officials, however, the President’s approval rate will likely remain near an all-time low. In fact, as the unemployment rate has declined, President Obama’s job approval rating seems to have only worsened.
It remains unclear whether voters will focus on key economic developments when they head to the polls in November. A series of polls released earlier this month, however, seems to show voters focused on foreign affair issues, including the Russian takeover of Crimea and the continued battle against ISIS extremists in Iraq and Syria.
Failure to capitalize on resumed growth is a problem plaguing the Obama administration from its first days. President Obama, who entered office in 2009 while the U.S. economy was largely in free fall, has largely overseen an economy recovering lost jobs rather than creating new jobs.
0 comments:
Post a Comment