US Jobless Claims Fall: Will It Bolster Obama's Re-election Campaign?

The U.S. job market continued to improve with statistics from the labor department showing that the number of Americans applying for unemployment benefits declined to a four-year low last week.

Going by the report from the labor department for the week ending March 17, jobless claims declined by 5,000 to touch 348,000 from the previous week’s figure of 353,000. This the lowest point since February 2008.

This must be excellent for President Barack Obama's re-election campaign, which has focused on the steps his administration has taken for ensuring that the country’s economy is on the path of recovery.

The decline in the jobless claims is certainly an indication that layoffs are fewer, which in turn means that companies are generating sufficient profit to avoid resorting to cost cutting measures.

The decrease in jobless claims is a sign that companies are hiring, which indicates that the economic condition is conducive for growth. For the month of February 227,000 jobs were added by firms.

It is clear that the Republican Presidential hopefuls will have to change their tactics on attacking the Obama administration. It seems they are already doing this. Mitt Romney’s address to a crowd last Sunday in Vernon Hills was a clear indication of this. “With the economy looking like it's getting a little better on the employment front, gasoline's getting a lot worse,” said Romney. Certainly the focus of the attack is shifting to gasoline prices.

So far Romney, the frontrunner among the Republican presidential candidates, has been putting forward the idea that he is in a better position to revive and bolster the American economy than Obama.

Earlier Romney was citing the unemployment rate to be a clear indication that Obama administration was not doing enough to create employment opportunities for the Americans. But now the unemployment rate has touched 8.3 percent, the lowest in three years.

So there will be a shift in tone from Romney, who will focus on the rising gasoline price.