In the coming months Barack Obama and challenger Mitt Romney will be working hard to frame how voters think about the President's jobs record. These stats will help you see beyond the candidates' spin.
Unemployment is lower but ...
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Unemployment has been above 7% during four presidential elections since World War II and the incumbent lost three of them. (The one winner? Ronald Reagan in 1984.) We're at just over 8% now.
The main unemployment rate is coming down, but that figure only includes people who are looking for a job.
A broader rate of underemployment includes those who've given up looking and part-timers who'd prefer to be full-time. That measure is falling too.
Even so, it says that one in seven Americans still want work they can't get.
What measures -- spending cuts, tax hikes, or both -- are needed to tame the budget deficit? Money magazine looks at how we got here and how big our debt really is.
