Washington, D.C. -
For the first time in nearly four years the unemployment rate has dipped below eight percent. That's good news for President Obama. No president has been re–elected with unemployment above 8 percent since the Great Depression. But Republican challenger Mitt Romney says the numbers aren't good enough.
John Keenan is repairing bikes these days, not in Montana where he owns a farm with his wife, but in Springfield, Virginia.
"I moved back in with my parents, the same house I grew up in," John Keenan said.
Keenan left behind breathtaking vistas and his cashmere sheep, because jobs are more plentiful on the east coast.
"It's been a very poor economy for a long time, it's tough to get a job. The scenery is awesome, everybody wants to move there, but you can't eat the scenery," Keenan said.
The latest jobs numbers suggest more of the same for people like Keenan. 114,000 jobs were added last month, less than in August or July. But the all important employment rate fell to 7.8%, the lowest since President Obama took office.
Officials at the White House say there is still more work to be done on the jobs front, but insist the latest report is proof the economy is headed in the right direction.
"We made too much progress to go back to the policies that led us to this crisis in the first place," President Obama said.
In a statement, Republican challenger Mitt Romney said: "This is not what a real recovery looks, like. If not for all the people who have simply dropped out of the labor force, the real unemployment rate would be closer to 11–percent." It's a message he's been hammering on the campaign trail.
Economists say unemployment fell in part because more have people who have landed part time work. That's what Keenan's done.
There is one more jobs report before Election Day.
