Unemployment drops in election battleground states

Ohio was among six of eight states considered U.S. presidential election battlegrounds that showed a September drop in unemployment, according to Labor Department data less than three weeks before voters head to the polls.

The jobless rate in Ohio declined to 7 percent in September from 7.2 percent a month earlier. Unemployment also fell in Wisconsin, Colorado, Florida, Iowa and Nevada. The rate was unchanged from August in New Hampshire and Virginia. Joblessness in five of the states is less than the national average of 7.8 percent.

Labor market developments in the swing states may help influence undecided voters as they determine whether to re-elect President Obama or opt for a different policy prescription for the economy and choose Republican challenger Mitt Romney.

"The economy is the most important thing in the election and the most important thing that voters care about," even as the debate has turned to other issues, said Stephen Hess, a presidential historian at the Brookings Institution in Washington.

Romney campaign staff "are probably hoping against hope there won't be any more good news" on the economy, said Hess, who served in the administrations of Dwight Eisenhower and Richard Nixon and as an adviser to Presidents Gerald Ford and Jimmy Carter.

A Labor Department report earlier this month showed the nation's unemployment rate dropped in September from 8.1 percent a month earlier. The October data are scheduled to be released Nov. 2, four days before the election.

Employers added jobs in five of eight electoral swing states in September. Payrolls in Virginia climbed 11,500 and Nevada showed a 7,100 pickup. Employment decreased 12,800 in Ohio, while New Hampshire and Iowa also showed declines.

The state figures are subject to larger sampling errors because they come from smaller surveys, making the national figures more reliable, according to the government's Bureau of Labor Statistics.

Employers nationwide added 114,000 jobs last month, after a revised 142,000 gain in August that was larger than initially estimated, Labor Department data showed on Oct. 5. The unemployment rate unexpectedly fell to 7.8 percent, breaking a 43-month streak of joblessness above 8 percent -- the longest stretch in the post-World War II era.