PBS Newshour 2/3/2012
"Jobless Rate Falls to 8.3%, Altering Face of Campaign" by MICHAEL D. SHEAR, New York Times 2/3/2012
Excerpt
The burst of job growth in January gives President Obama a fresh — but tricky — opportunity to revise the grim economic narrative of his presidency while offering Mitt Romney a choice: embrace a new optimism or campaign against a sinking economy even as it shows signs of turning around.
The Labor Department reported on Friday that the unemployment rate had fallen all the way back to the level of President Obama’s first full month in office, to 8.3 percent, from a high of 10 percent in late 2009. Yet unemployment also remains higher than it has been for any presidential election since the Great Depression.
Those dueling realities — an improving economy that remains very weak — create serious risks for the top political advisers to President Obama and Mr. Romney as they begin to grapple with the impact of Friday’s report. The image of an overly optimistic president could feel discordant and disconnected to voters who are still struggling with unemployment and foreclosures. For Mr. Romney, the improving economy puts at risk his central message as the business executive who can fix a stalled economy.
Economists were surprised by the strength of the new numbers, which showed a gain of 243,000 jobs last month and larger gains in earlier months than previously reported. Over the last year, the economy has added almost two million jobs for the best 12 months in five years. Stocks surged, with the Standard & Poor’s 500-stock index closing only slightly below its high since Mr. Obama took office.
The economy has now been gaining strength for almost six months, according to a broad array of data, offering some reason for hope that the effects of the deep financial crisis are finally starting to fade.
Still, the economy will need several more years of strong job growth to return to anything resembling full health.
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