Politics

Rising Unemployment Becomes Key Campaign Issue

CHICAGO (CBS) ― The unemployment rate is rising at record levels, pushing the economy to the forefront of the campaign trail.

The nation's unemployment rate rose to a five-year high of 6.1 percent in August. Employers cut 84,000 jobs in August alone, contributing to the total 605,000 jobs that have disappeared this year.

CBS 2's Mike Parker reports the jobless workers who go to the unemployment office on the Near South Side for their benefit checks see a grim situation in the job market.

"It's hard to just survive the way the economy is right now," said unemployed warehouse manager Richard Anderson. "My hope is in God right now."

The unemployed also know what they want to hear from the candidates running for the white house.

"You're going to need to figure out some way to stabilize the economy," said unemployed delivery driver Leonard Straw. "That's the only way people are going to be able to rebound from this."

The McCain campaign reacted to the jobless numbers Friday with a statement promising to "fight for those that lost their jobs" and promising to use junior colleges for job training.

The Obama campaign statement accused McCain of planning to continue more of the same Bush administration economic policies.

Obama's running mate, Sen. Joe Biden, was on the stump in Pennsylvania.

"It's not only a lost job, it's a loss of identity. This is not your father's Republican Party. This is a different Republican Party," Biden said.

"The country is in real trouble and nobody has a solution," said Roosevelt University political science professor Paul Green.

Green, just back from both parties national conventions, is dubious about the responses from both sides.

"I mean there's no magic wand. Believe me if there was one, the current president would have used it," Green said.

The Illinois unemployment figures won't be released for another two weeks, but nobody's optimistic about them. July's jobless rate was 7.3 percent. Almost half a million workers in the state were without jobs. That was the highest Illinois rate in 15 years.

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