US economy adds 171,000 new jobs

 

The boost in recruitment will give some comfort to President Barack Obama’s re-election campaign, as he and Republican opponent Mitt Romney race across the US in the final days before polls close on Tuesday night.

 

 

But the official figures from the Labor Department showed that the unemployment rate still rose to 7.9%, having fallen to 7.8% in September, as more workers resumed the search for jobs.

 

Only people who are currently looking for a job count as unemployed.

 

The report from the Bureau of Labor Statistics also said 84,000 more jobs were created in August and September than initially estimated – a hopeful sign that the country’s economic recovery is becoming more robust.

 

 

Despite the extra jobs, the unemployment rate – a key focus in the neck-and-neck race for the White House – has ticked up by a tenth of a percentage point to 7.9 per cent, a shift which is being seen as a correction to an underestimation of September’s unexpectedly sharp 0.3 percentage point fall.

 

 

While the rise in the jobless rate was expected, the increase in payrolls beat even the most optimistic forecast in a Reuters poll.

 

 

The monthly report is one of the most closely watched indicators of the US economy’s health and regularly sets the tone for financial markets worldwide. Trading in global markets had been sluggish on Friday morning in anticipation of the announcement, but the dollar rose swiftly against both the euro and the yen following the announcement.

 

 

This is the eighth straight month of job growth, although growth in many of those months was somewhat lacklustre – a trend that will likely reinforce the Federal Reserve’s resolve to keep easy money policies in place until the economy shows more vigour.

 

 

President Barack Obama and his Republican challenger, former Massachusetts governor Mitt Romney, are doing a campaign blitz through so-called