Unemployment rate in U.S. at 44-month low

Even as U.S. President Barack Obama fought to dispel the notion that he showed a weaker debate performance in Denver this week , his campaign was buoyed by news of the unemployment rate dropping to 7.8 per cent for September, a 44-month low for the economy.

Breaching the psychologically important 8 per cent-mark, the joblessness rate faced downward pressure even as the Bureau of Labour Statistics announced here that employers had created 114,000 jobs last month, and further, the economy added 86,000 more jobs in July and August than initially estimated. Alan Krueger, Mr. Obama’s Chairman of the Council of Economic Advisers, said the jobs report “provides further evidence that the economy is continuing to heal.”