WBEZ 91.5 Chicago

A sobering economic snapshot intensified the presidential campaign on Friday as President Barack Obama rolled through two vote-rich battleground states and Republican Mitt Romney fended off conservative complaints about his plan for winning.

November saw a slight dip in national unemployment levels, which dropped from 9 to 8.6 percent.

Hiring picked up slightly in July and the unemployment rate dipped to 9.1 percent, an optimistic sign after the worst day on Wall Street in nearly three years.The Labor Department says employers added 117,000 jobs last month. That's an improvement from the past two months."

There are more than 25 million Americans who are either unemployed or can't find full-time work.Nationwide, the broader unemployment rate, which tracks this group, is 16.2 percent. But the rate varies widely from state to state, according to the latest numbers from the BLS.

The U.S. Department of Labor reported today that the nation's unemployment rate rose to a six-month high of 9.2 percent, up from last month's rate of 9.1 percent.

State officials say unemployment in all 12 Illinois metro areas dropped in May, and all but three of those regions added jobs or were unchanged. The Illinois Department of Employment Security put out its monthly metro and county-level unemployment stats today.

The nation's unemployment rate rose to 9.1 percent in May, as hiring slowed to the lowest level in eight months, according to the U.S.