Unemployment Rate Rises to 7.9%

The US unemployment rate rose to 7.9% this morning as the underemployment dipped slightly to 14.6%, in the final economic report card before the Nov 6 presidential election. The participation rate rose slightly to 63.8%. In all the US economy created about 171,000 new jobs in October. A recovering economy should be creating between 250,000 and 300,000 jobs.

More: While the president may claim progress on the number of jobs created, the rising rate robs him of two key talking points: that the economy is going in the right direction, and that the unemployment rate is the same as it was when he took office. Unemployment was 7.8% when Barack Obama took the oath of office in 2009.

More at the BLS.