PRESTOPUNDIT -- A Good Blog at a Great Price. Guaranteed.: A STEADY 5.4% UNEMPLOYMENT RATE

October 08, 2004

A STEADY 5.4% UNEMPLOYMENT RATE remains below it's 30-year average. Here's how Reuters is spinning the story. And here's the part that will matter for the debate:

Labor also said that .. the economy added about 236,000 more jobs than previously thought in the year ended March 2004 .. After including the projected change, it appears that about 585,000 jobs have been lost since President Bush took office in January 2001.

Here's the AP's pre-debate spin:

A lackluster unemployment report and fresh questions about President Bush's rationale for invading Iraq frame the second face-to-face encounter Friday night between Bush and Sen. John Kerry ..
Bush cast the addition of 96,000 jobs as proof his tax cuts have bolstered the jobs market and the economy overall while Kerry pointed out that the country has seen a net job loss under the Bush administration, a first since the Depression.
On the day the report came out, Bush's campaign unveiled an advertisement for national cable networks that touts "nearly 2 million jobs in just over a year," resulting in "nearly 2 million more people back working," and "nearly 2 million more people with wages."
Kerry called the number "disappointing" and contended that even the jobs that have been created under Bush pay less and offer fewer benefits than those that have been lost. "The president does not seem to understand how many middle-class families are being squeezed by falling incomes and spiraling health care, tuition and energy costs," he said in a statement.