The Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) released its monthly Regional and State Employment and Unemployment report today showing a weakening economy in some key swing states. According to the BLS the key battleground state of Ohio lost 12,800 jobs in September while neighboring Michigan lost 13,000.
The new data undercuts President Obama’s new claim that the economy is finally entering recovery. “We were losing 800,000 jobs a month,” Obama said in Athens, Ohio, Wednesday. “Now we’ve added more than 5 million new jobs, more manufacturing jobs than any time since the 1990s.” In addition to showing that Ohio lost jobs last month, the national BLS report released two weeks ago showed the the U.S. economy lost 16,000 jobs in September.
But today’s BLS did not have all bad news for Obama. While employers told the Labor Department that they shed 12,800 jobs, Ohioans told the Labor Department they actually got new jobs. The BLS reported today that unemployment in Ohio fell to 7.0 percent from 7.2 percent.
