Meager Job Growth in States Closely Divided on Candidates

[Nicholas_J]

By EDMUND L. ANDREWS

Published: September 18, 2004


ASHINGTON, Sept. 17 - Less than seven weeks before the presidential election, employment figures released on Friday showed that job creation slowed to a crawl last month in some swing states hit hard by widespread layoffs in manufacturing.

Ohio, which has 20 electoral votes and is seen as crucial for victory by both President Bush and Senator John Kerry, lost 11,800 jobs in August and has about 40,000 fewer jobs than when the nation's job market began to pick up a year ago.


Missouri, another swing state, lost a total of 5,500 jobs in August and about 24,000 jobs since June. But in a bit of good news for the president, about 6,000 manufacturing jobs were added over the past year, and the state's employment is still slightly higher than it was one year ago.

Over all, the Bureau of Labor Statistics reported on Friday that employment climbed in 30 states and declined in 20 others during August. Nationwide, the Labor Department has estimated that employment rose by 144,000 jobs in August, slightly more than the number needed to keep up with increases in population, but not enough to significantly lower the unemployment rate, which stood at 5.4 percent.

http://www.nytimes.com/2004/09/18/national/18jobs.html