Unemployment Rate Now Higher Than Day Obama Took Office

On the eve of the 2012 election, the U.S. Bureau of Labor and Statistics reports the seasonally-adjusted unemployment rate is 7.9 percent.

While the number of jobs added in October was slightly higher than expected (171,000), the unemployment rate still climbed from 7.8 to 7.9 percent. That is the highest rate of any incumbent president since FDR in the 1930s. The rate is also higher than the day Obama took office in January 2009.

According to the BLS (Bureau of Labor and Statistics) the unemployment rate in January 2009 was 7.8 percent. The actual unemployment rate, as has been reported by dozens of sources, does not include people who have dropped out of the workforce, or have stopped looking for work.