By: Kristen Quon Photo by: Lindsey Campbell
ABINGDON, Va- About 3,000 people came out to hear presidential hopeful Mitt Romney speak at a rally at Carter Machinery in Abingdon, Va., on Friday.
Romney challenged last week’s announced drop in unemployment rate, saying that the primary reason people are out of work is because more and more people have simply “stopped looking.”
“If the same share of people were participating in the workforce today as on the day the president got elected, our unemployment rate would be around 11 percent,” Romney said. “That’s the real reality of what’s happening out there.”
Romney also said that half of college students in America cannot find jobs after graduation because they are not available.
Milligan student Lauren McInturff attended the rally because she is concerned with how Romney plans to make changes in tuition costs for college students.
“The fact that students nowadays cannot find jobs scares me,” she said. “I think with Romney as president I have a better chance of finding a job after I graduate, which is comforting.”
According to this month’s job release by the Bureau of Labor Statistics, the unemployment rate in the month of September is 7.8 percent, the lowest it has been since Obama took office in 2009. September also saw the addition of 114,000 jobs, a decrease from the 142,000 that were added in August.
“When I’m president of the United States, that unemployment rate is going to come down not because people are giving up and dropping out of the workforce, but because we are creating more jobs,” Romney said. “I will create jobs and get America working again!”
According to ABC, President Obama commented in his own rally in Vienna, Va., that the latest jobs report was a reminder “we are moving forward again” and have “come too far to turn back now.
Romney will continue his tour in St. Petersburg, Fla., later this week as he and President Obama prepare for the upcoming November election.
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