Photograph by Sam Hodgson/Bloomberg
Job seekers in El Cajon, California.
Forty-three is the number of consecutive months in which the U.S. unemployment rate has been above 8 percent. The unemployment rate fell to 8.1 percent in August from 8.3 percent in July.
Thirty is the number of consecutive months in which U.S. private-sector payrolls rose, including a gain of 103,000 in August.
Republicans are brandishing the first number and Democrats the second as they seek to gain a political advantage on the economy and jobs, the issues that voters rank as their top concerns ahead of the Nov. 6 election.
Unemployment above 8 percent“for 43 straight months” shows that President Barack Obama “has not fulfilled his promises,” Republican presidential nominee Mitt Romney said Sept. 8 in Virginia Beach, Virginia.
“The economy has now added private sector jobs for 30 straight months, for a total of 4.6 million jobs during that period,” Alan Krueger, the chairman of President Barack Obama’s council of economic advisers, wrote on the White House’s blog Sept. 7.
