Unemployment falls in seven key election swing states

Unemployment rates fell or held steady last month in nine key swing states at the center of this year's presidential election.

Rates dropped in Ohio, Florida, Wisconsin, Colorado, Iowa, Nevada and North Carolina. They were unchanged in New Hampshire and Virginia.

Six of the nine swing states gained jobs last month: Colorado, Florida, Nevada, North Carolina, Virginia and Wisconsin.

Virginia, which is considered one of the most crucial states in play because of its 13 electoral votes, added 11,500 jobs last month. That was the most of any swing state. The unemployment rate remained 5.9 percent, far below the national average.

Read more: http://www.insidebayarea.com/busines...n-swing-states

Look at all the Excitement for America :)

Look at the U-6 numbers.

Unemployment inches down to 7.9%...
:huh:
171K jobs added, jobless rate 7.9 percent
WASHINGTON, Nov. 2,`12 (UPI) -- The U.S. Labor Department said Friday the economy added 171,00 jobs in October and the jobless rate rose to 7.9 percent as more people entered the workforce.

Quote:

In the last key economic report before the presidential election, the Labor Department said the economy gained 184,000 private-sector jobs, which was offset by further layoffs of state and local government workers. The department also revised September's payroll gains upward to 148,000 jobs from the initially reported 114,000, and the August gain to 192,000, up from 142,000. The largest job gains in October were in professional and business services, healthcare, retail, leisure and hospitality, and construction.

The department said 578,000 more people actively sought employment in October and Alan Krueger, chairman of the White House Council of Economic Advisers, said that was "largely" the reason the unemployment rate rose a 0.1 percent from its September rate of 7.8 percent. At a campaign rally in Hilliard, Ohio, Friday President Barack Obama told supporters the Labor Department report found U.S. companies "hired more workers in October than at any time in the last eight months." He said the economy has made "real progress" during his term in office "but we are here today because we know we've got more work to do."

Republican presidential nominee Mitt Romney issued a statement calling the increase in the unemployment rate "a sad reminder that the economy is at a virtual standstill." "The jobless rate is higher than it was when President Obama took office," Romney said, "and there are still 23 million Americans struggling for work." U.S. House Speaker John Boehner, R-Ohio, said, "Four years of persistently high unemployment and long-term joblessness might be the best President Obama can do -- but it's nowhere near what the American people can do if we get Washington out of their way."

Paul Dales, senior U.S. economist for Capital Economics, told The New York Times Friday's report indicates things are "better than we'd expected and certainly better than we'd thought a few months ago," but he said the economy is not making sufficient progress to bring the jobless rate down "significantly and rapidly."

Read more: http://www.upi.com/Business_News/201...#ixzz2B7R6gjEB

See also:

Damage from Sandy? What About the Potential Economic Boost?
31 Oct 2012 | As focus turns to the cost of the damage wrecked by Sandy, one of the biggest storms to hit the U.S., experts say the economy is set for a significant boost from the spending that will result from the need to rebuild homes and infrastructure.

Quote:

The positive multiplier effect of reconstruction after Sandy could be as much as five times, according to Frank Holmes, CEO and CIO of money manager U.S. Global Investors. If the cost of the damages comes up to $20 billion, the economic boost in terms of spending and activity could be $100 billion, he said. “America is great at rebounding and it will reinvigorate the economy. When you have committed infrastructure projects by governments, you get this automatic multiplying effect …every dollar is worth $4 to $6, so I think the positive part is going into 2013,” Holmes told CNBC Asia’s “Squawk Box” on Wednesday. “We’re going to get a lot of infrastructure spending.”

A boost from reconstruction spending in the months ahead would help the U.S. economy, where a recovery has been slow. The U.S. economy grew a weak 2 percent in the third quarter from a year earlier and last month the Federal Reserve unveiled an aggressive monetary stimulus program to help get the economy get back on track. Holmes’ views echo that of Mohamed El-Erian, Co-CIO of PIMCO, who said on Tuesday that an initial decline in U.S. gross domestic product (GDP) and the destruction of physical wealth will be offset over time by greater economic activity.

IHS Global Insight, a forecasting firm, said the storm could end up causing about $20 billion in property damage and $10 to $30 billion more in lost business, making it one of the costliest natural disasters on record in the U.S. EQECAT, a catastrophe risk modeling firm, estimates that the economic losses from Sandy could amount to $10-20 billion, and insured damage would be about $5 to $10 billion. Insured damage does not include what would be covered by federal flood insurance.

Corelogic, a firm that analyses data, estimates that 284,000 residential properties, valued at $88 billion, were at risk from the storms. This compares with the $108 billion in damages caused by Hurricane Katrina in 2005, the most destructive storm to hit the United States. The economy slowed in the quarter after Katrina before bouncing back quickly.

Big Spending

Fiscal cliff or unemployment benefits?...
:huh:
One more item for the fiscal cliff list: Jobless benefits
11/12/12 - As if the fiscal cliff wasn't worrisome enough, Democrats delivered this skunk of a reminder Monday: More than 2 million people will lose their jobless benefits at the end of the year unless lawmakers extend them.

Quote:

That could mean a $58 billion hit to the economy if the benefits were allowed to lapse, Democrats on the tax-writing House Ways and Means Committee wrote in a report. “We cannot forget the human cliff looming for more than two million Americans scheduled to lose their economic lifeline during the upcoming holidays,” said Rep. Sander Levin, the top Democrat on the committee. “Congress must act quickly to ensure that we do not abandon those workers who have lost their jobs through no fault of their own.”

Jobless benefits usually have the highest bang for the buck in terms of economic growth because its recipients tend to spend the cash quickly, putting the money back into the economy. Economist Mark Zandi said in July that letting the unemployment benefits end would reduce growth by $58 billion. A separate analysis by JP Morgan Chase in April showed that not extending benefits beyond this year could reduce the nation’s gross domestic product by .3 percent.

The Democrats’ analysis also broke down the number of jobless benefit recipients state-by-state. The top five states that would be most affected would be California, New York, New Jersey, Pennsylvania and Georgia.

Source

I suspect illness and death among Rep extremists accounted for most of the fall .
More good news .

Sick limey asshole.