The latest unemployment report shows the jobless rate is basically stuck where it's been, which is to say, the situation is not good. The private sector added fewer jobs than economists expected, and government jobs disappeared. This is the final jobs report before November's midterm elections, and elected officials are figuring out how to deal with it.
SCOTT SIMON, Host: The latest unemployment report shows the jobless rate is basically stuck where it has been, and that's not good news. The private sector added fewer jobs than economists expected and government jobs disappeared. The jobs report released yesterday is the last one before November's midterm elections. NPR's White House correspondent Ari Shapiro reports on how elected officials are dealing with it.</s>ARI SHAPIRO: The unemployment report prompted dueling speeches at small businesses 500 miles apart from each other. In Maryland, President Obama visited a concrete products company.</s>BARACK OBAMA: Now, these are the guys that build serious stuff: concrete blocks, bricks - for walls that are thick, difficult to move and can stop anything in their path. Sort of like the way I feel about Congress sometimes.</s>ARI SHAPIRO: Congressman John Boehner is proud to have obstructed the president's agenda. He hopes to be speaker if Republicans take back the House in three weeks. Yesterday, Boehner gave a speech of his own at a small business in his home district.</s>JOHN BOEHNER: The pink slips shouldn't be going to workers here in Ohio, they should be going to the members of President Obama's economic team.</s>ARI SHAPIRO: Both men talked a lot about how small businesses are struggling in this economy, but they gave utterly different views. First, President Obama argued that Republicans stood in the way of government programs that would give small businesses easier access to cash.</s>BARACK OBAMA: Thousands of small business owners across America had been waiting for months for this bill to pass, for the loans and tax cuts they've badly needed to grow their businesses and hire new employees. Unfortunately, it was held up all summer by a partisan minority until a few courageous Republican senators put politics aside.</s>ARI SHAPIRO: But back in Ohio, Congressman Boehner said the answer is for government to get out of the way and stop spending taxpayer money on ineffective programs.</s>JOHN BOEHNER: Unidentified People: No.</s>JOHN BOEHNER: Unidentified People: No.</s>JOHN BOEHNER: Hell no, you don't.</s>ARI SHAPIRO: Yesterday's numbers showed that unemployment has now been above nine- and-a-half percent for 14 months - that's longer since any time since the 1930s.</s>AUSTAN GOOLSBEE: Everybody knows this hole is the deepest since 1929, and I think that just confirms what people knew.</s>ARI SHAPIRO: This is Austan Goolsbee, the new chairman of the President's Council of Economic Advisers. While Mr. Obama was speaking in Maryland, Goolsbee was at the White House trying to put the unemployment numbers in context.</s>AUSTAN GOOLSBEE: All you can do is start at the bottom and work your way out. And he clearly came in at the bottom, and we're just trying to slowly work our way out of this. It will succeed.</s>ARI SHAPIRO: Unidentified Man #4: Because the economy should be job one.</s>ARI SHAPIRO: Businesses are coming back - slowly. In September, the private sector added 64,000 jobs, which is about average for the last nine months. Unfortunately, that's not nearly enough to get us out of this hole, says senior economist Robert Dye of the PNC Financial Services Group.</s>ROBERT DYE: Well, we'd like to see, you know, consistent monthly gains of 150 to 200 thousand per month. Really bring the unemployment rate down in a meaningful way.</s>ARI SHAPIRO: That means job growth needs to more than double, and until it does, Dye says, people in office will be voted out.</s>ROBERT DYE: A bad economy - and I think a 9.6 percent unemployment rate qualifies as a bad economy - going into an election is bad news for incumbents. It doesn't matter what party you're in. If you're an incumbent in this election, watch out.</s>ARI SHAPIRO: Ari Shapiro, NPR News, the White House.