Hispanic Unemployment Drops Below 10 Percent, First Time Since Obama Took Office

Oct. 6, 2012— -- The unemployment rate fell below eight percent for the first time in 43 months, according to the federal government September jobs report.

The figures also show a Hispanic unemployment rate that has dropped below 10 percent for the first time since December 2008, before President Obama took office.

How it will affect the campaign

Friday's report comes as welcome news to Obama, whio has struggled to combat stubbornly high unemployment rates and a sluggish economy as he campaigns for reelection.

The numbers also mark a bright spot for the president's reelection campaign at the end of a tough week. Obama's Wednesday night debate performance against Republican challenger Mitt Romney was widely panned for being tired, with most outlets declaring Romney the winner of the evening.

"This morning, we found out that the unemployment rate has fallen to its lowest level since I took office," Obama said during a campaign stop in Fairfax, Va. "More Americans entered the workforce, more people are getting jobs."

Republicans, who have for months on the campaign trail noted the higher-than-eight-percent unemployment rates, still came out swinging following the report.

Presidential nominee Mitt Romney blasted the report, saying the unemployment numbers are down because people have simply stopped searching for jobs.

"This is not what a real recovery looks like," he wrote in a statement. "We created fewer jobs in September than in August, and fewer jobs in August than in July, and we've lost over 600,000 manufacturing jobs since President Obama took office. If not for all the people who have simply dropped out of the labor force, the real unemployment rate would be closer to 11 percent."

Republicans also took to Twitter to criticize the Obama administration, with some going so far as to accuse them of manipulating the numbers.