Joblessness Rising in 12 Battleground States for Obama, McCain

Unemployment rose last month in the twelve most hotly contested battleground states in the presidential election, including Michigan, Florida and Ohio.

Michigan's jobless rate rose to 8.9 percent, the highest in the nation, with the loss of more than 20,000 manufacturing jobs in August, the Labor Department reported yesterday. Unemployment in Florida has surged 2.3 percentage points to 6.5 percent over the last 12 months.

News about swelling unemployment rolls capped a tumultuous week when the worst financial crisis since the Great Depression dominated the presidential campaign. With Republican President George W. Bush in the White House, Democratic nominee Barack Obama gained support as economic concerns monopolized political debate.

``Voters will be frustrated with the status quo, and Democrats have a better chance at making the argument that they are willing to use government to alleviate the pain,'' said Julian E. Zelizer, a professor of history and public affairs at Princeton University. ``Republicans have more trouble singing the populist song, and it is their guy who is in charge as the economy stumbles.''

In the latest Gallup Inc. tracking poll, Obama led Republican nominee John McCain 49 percent to 44 percent, after trailing by 2 percentage points just a week earlier.

In the interim, Lehman Brothers Inc. filed history's biggest bankruptcy case, Merrill Lynch & Co. was sold, American International Group Inc. was rescued with an $85 billion loan and the Bush administration mounted unprecedented federal interventions to calm credit-market chaos.

Nationwide, the jobless rate in August hit a five-year high of 6.1 percent. Unemployment rose last month in 44 states. Five rates registered a drop and Maine was unchanged.

Among a dozen states considered to be highly competitive in the presidential contest, 11 had ``significant'' unemployment rate changes over the last 12 months, the Labor Department said. Jobless rates in Florida, Virginia, North Carolina, Colorado and Nevada were more than 40 percent higher than their August 2007 levels. Michigan, Missouri, Nevada, New Hampshire, New Mexico, Ohio and Pennsylvania also had significant increases in the past year. Wisconsin's rate rose only 0.2 percentage points.

The twelve battleground states together account for 157 of the 270 electoral votes needed to win the White House.