US Jobs Surpass Expectations

America goes to the polls today to determine whether Mitt Romney (Republican) or Barak Obama (Democrat) will be the next President of the United States of America. It is widely regarded as one of the tightest presidential races of all time. On Friday, unemployment figures for October were released – the last set of significant economic data before the vote.

The US economy created more jobs than anticipated in October. 171,000 new jobs were created compared to the average monthly figure of 157,000 for the year to date (that average is 4000 higher than the comparable figure for 2011). Nonetheless, the unemployment rate in the US slipped to 7.9% of the workforce in October from 7.8% in September. This may be explained by the fact that more Americans now think it’s worth their while to actively seek employment again – the official unemployment figure only captures those without a job who are actively looking for work.

Both candidates have seized on the data as providing support for their own cause. The challenger stated that: "Today's increase in the unemployment rate is a sad reminder that the economy is at a virtual standstill. The jobless rate is higher than it was when President Obama took office, and there are still 23 million Americans struggling for work." The rate of unemployment is just 0.1% worse than Obama inherited from President Bush’s administration. For his part, on the stump in Ohio, the President opined that: "We've made real progress, but we've got more work to do."

A worrying statistic is that 8.3 million Americans can only find part-time employment, but would prefer to be in full-time work. The most recent raft of new jobs saw professional and business services adding the most workers followed by the healthcare and retail sectors. It is unlikely that the employment statistics will sway many undecided voters, but by tomorrow we’ll know if the mantra of “change you can believe in” has won Obama four more years or if the Americans are demanding a more tangible change from a Democratic to a Republican administration.