The US unemployment rate fell to 7.9per cent in September, from 8.4per cent in August, a big drop that in normal times would be welcome news for a presidential incumbent seeking reelection in just over a month.
These are not normal times.
As the best-known summary statistic of the labor market, the US unemployment rate is "a psychologically important number" for voters, said Michael Brown, principal US economist at Visa.
But President Donald Trump's announcement on Friday that he had tested positive for the novel coronavirus pushes that number into the background: Voters may be "weighing news related to the virus a bit more than the economic data right now," Brown said.
The drop in the September jobless rate, reported by the Labor Department on Friday, extends a steep downward trend from the 14.7per cent registered in April, which was the highest level since the Great Depression.
