The U.S. economy has added 171,000 jobs in October, and the unemployment rate ticked up one-tenth to 7.9%. The unemployment rate was 7.8%. While the uptick in the rate was expected, the hiring was better than expected. The payroll group ADP had said that 158,000 jobs were created, so the report was better than projected. The report’s impact on the election could be mixed. President Obama has had difficulty using good reports to his advantage. There was a question about whether or not the report would be released today, due to Superstorm Sandy. Republicans started sounding the alarm, saying the report was needed before the election. If the report was worse than expected, then Republicans would be using it to try to swing the last few undecided to them.
