Nation's jobless rate falls to 7.8%

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The unemployment rate  fell  to 7.8 percent in September, and total nonfarm payroll employment rose by 114,000, the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics reported today. The lower number at least temporarily quelled fears of an economic slowdown and came a month before the presidential election. It also marked the first time in nearly four years that the jobless rate had fallen below 8 percent, the Associated Press reported.

Scania Group / Foter

Employment increased in health care and in transportation and warehousing but changed little in most other major industries.Delaware’s unemployment rate has been running about a percentage point below the national rate. Delaware’s September unemployment rate is expected to be released around the 20th of this month.
For the first 8 months of the year, the rate held within a narrow range of 8.1 and 8.3 percent. The number of unemployed persons, at 12.1 million, decreased by 456,000 in September.

Among the major worker groups, the unemployment rates for adult men 7.3 percent, adult women 7  percent, and whites 7.0 percent declined over the month. The unemployment rates for teenagers 23.7 percent, blacks 13.4 percent, and Hispanics 9.9 percent were little changed. The jobless rate for Asians, at 4.8 percent not seasonally adjusted, fell over the year.

Not surprisingly, the jobless figure ended up on the political stage with long-retired General Electric CEO Jack Welch claiming in a Twitter post that the numbers were cooked by the Obama administration. Department of Labor officials have long stressed that the calculations are not subject to such pressures and are closely guarded prior to release.

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The numbers were good news to President Obama who had come off what many saw as a weak debate performance against challenger Mitt Romney.

Click on the link below to the  release from the BLS

via Employment Situation Summary.

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