Unemployment falls in seven swing states
NEW YORK (CNNMoney) --
Unemployment declined in 41 states in September, seven of which are key
battlegrounds in the election. But falling unemployment rates don't necessarily
point to improvement.
Ohio, which has 18 electoral votes up for grabs, saw its
unemployment rate decline to 7% in September, down from 7.2% just a month
earlier. While hiring has picked up slightly in the state, unemployment is
partly falling for the wrong reasons.
Ohio added about 51,000 jobs in
the last year, but more than 40,000 people also dropped out of the state's labor
force.
Meanwhile in Florida, which has 29
electoral votes, the job market has made more steady progress. But you wouldn't
know it from the unemployment rate, which stood at 8.7% in September, higher
than the national average of
7.8%.
Florida's labor force is
growing, which is an encouraging sign. More people are trying to get jobs in
the state, and they're getting them. Over the last year, hiring has not only
kept up -- it has grown at a rate five times faster than Florida's expanding
labor force.
Over the last year, the state has added 34,000 professional and
business service jobs, 21,000 health care and social assistance jobs, and
11,000 retail jobs. That said, as one of the hardest hit states in the housing
crisis, it still suffers from a loss of construction jobs.
"These numbers today tell
us two things -- we still have more work to do to grow our economy, and we are
heading in the right direction.," Florida Gov. Rick Scott said in a
statement.
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