INTERNATIONAL US: Unchanged unemployment places pressure on Obama

New data from the US Department of Labor released last Friday [6 July 2012] shows net employment rising 80,000, with the unemployment rate remains at 8.2%.
Mon, 9 Jul 2012
New data from the US Department of Labor released last Friday [6 July 2012] shows net employment rising 80,000, with the unemployment rate remains at 8.2%.

The consensus is that ahead of November’s presidential election, in which Obama goes up against Republican nominee Mitt Romney, these figures play squarely into the hands of Romney.As newspaper the USA Today wrote last week: “The new numbers from the Labor Department will either give Obama new ammunition to argue that the economy is coming back, or provide Republican Mitt Romney with new evidence to the contrary.”

Early signs in the shape of two private surveys last Thursday (5 July), from analytics and economics firm ADP had been positive, with total private sector employment rising by 176,000 in its data, and polling firm Gallup showing seasonally adjusted unemployment rate dropping from 8.3% to 7.8%.

Reliably right-wing Fox News calls the new data “weak”, saying that with four more sets of job data due to come out before the November presidential election, Obama has four more chances “to prove he’s helped turn the economy around… Those reports could determine whether he gets four more years”.

The UK’s Guardian notes that financial markets fell “modestly” after the data was released, and reports the comments of the Republican House speaker John Boehner: "Today's report shows the private sector clearly isn't 'doing fine' and that President Obama's policies have failed. The president bet on a failed 'stimulus' spending binge that led to 41 months of unemployment above 8%.”

Meanwhile, CBS News, which tends more to the centre or the Democrats, says that five years and a fortnight on from the start of the subprime crisis, when unemployment stood at just 4.6%: “Many are wondering why the economy and the jobs market are not better off five years later.”

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