New jobs figures which have the unemployment rate ticking up to 7.9 percent show the US economy at a “virtual standstill” just four days before the election, Republican nominee Mitt Romney said Friday.
“Today’s increase in the unemployment rate is a sad reminder that the economy is at a virtual standstill,” Romney said of the final jobless report before Tuesday’s election, adding that the rate is higher than it was when President Barack Obama took office in early 2009.