US News

Flat job stats kill Obama’s bounce after convention

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CHARLOTTE, NC — A disappointing jobs report yesterday killed President Obama’s convention buzz.

The day after Obama delivered his big speech accepting renomination at the Democratic National Convention, a government report showed the unemployment rate last month dropped to 8.1 percent — but mostly because 368,000 frustrated workers quit the labor market.

The mass exodus of job seekers overshadowed the declining unemployment rate, which fell from 8.3 percent in July, and the addition of a mere 96,000 new jobs in August, far fewer than what had been hoped for.

“If last night was the party, this morning is the hangover,” said Republican presidential nominee Mitt Romney, as he embarked on a campaign tour through swing states Iowa and New Hampshire.

“This is more of the same for middle-class families who are suffering through the worst economic recovery since the Great Depression,” he said. “It is clear that President Obama just hasn’t lived up to his promises and his policies haven’t worked. We aren’t better off than we were four years ago.”

Romney promised that his plan for tax reform, budget cuts and less regulation would create 12 million new jobs by 2016.

The grim jobs numbers weighed down Obama just as he hit the campaign trail, also stumping in Iowa and New Hampshire, looking for a post-convention bounce in the polls.

Americans’ dissatisfaction with the economy, widespread joblessness and the direction in which the country is moving remain the biggest obstacles to his re-election.

Obama continued to make the case — as he did in his convention speech Thursday — that he just needs more time.

“We need to create more jobs faster. We need to fill the hole left by this recession faster,” Obama said at a campaign rally in Portsmouth, NH.

Obama said the 96,000 new jobs was a reassuring sign. “But that’s not good enough. We know it’s not good enough,” he said.

The president blamed Republicans in Congress for blocking his jobs plan, which he claimed would create 1 million jobs, partly with federal spending for states to hire more teachers and firefighters.

“There’s a lot more we can do,” explained Obama.

Romney, campaigning in Orange City, Iowa, had a different take: “This president tried, but he didn’t understand what it takes to make our economy work. I do.”

August swoon

* Employers added only 96,000 jobs

* Unemployment still above 8%

* 368,000 people stopped looking for work

* Manufacturing jobs fells by 15,000