There’s good news and bad news today in the Bureau of Labor Statistics’ Local Area Unemployment Statistics, released this morning. The good news is that unemployment fell to eight percent in September. The bad news is found in the fine print:
- According to the press release, the increase resulted from “in large part by greater than expected seasonal gains in private and public sector educational services.” So, not exactly private sector growth.
- Colorado’s unemployment rate, which kept pace with the national average for some time, now remains higher than the national average.
- The largest Colorado decline was in the manufacturing sector, the sector that Obama has touted for months as his focus.
- The West (including Colorado) continued to record the highest regional unemployment rate in September (9.1%); although, this may have been driven by Nevada’s persistently high unemployment rate of 11.8% in September.
While Colorado was one of the states that decreased its unemployment numbers, several states saw increases in the unemployed, including Michigan (-13,000), Ohio (-12,800) and Oregon (-7,900). Ohio’s decrease cannot bode well for Obama’s campaign as Ohio is quickly becoming the most sought-after of swing states.
And, of course, there was that pesky article about Colorado counties with greater than 20% unemployment. We could hardly blame President Obama if he was, in fact, considering pulling out of Colorado. But, it would be unfortunate for all of his down ticket candidates.