September 5, 2008 Friday SHOW: CBS Evening News 6:30 PM EST CBS US economy is issue number one in presidential campaign ANCHORS: RUSS MITCHELL REPORTERS: ANTHONY MASON LENGTH: 483 words RUSS MITCHELL, co Enhanced Coverage Linking MITCHELL, co -Search using: * Company Dossier * Company Profile * News, Most Recent 60 Days -anchor: It has become issue number one in this year's presidential campaign: how to fix the struggling US economy. Today candidates John McCain Enhanced Coverage Linking John McCain -Search using: * Biographies Plus News * News, Most Recent 60 Days and Barack Obama Enhanced Coverage Linking Barack Obama -Search using: * Biographies Plus News * News, Most Recent 60 Days made their arguments in key swing states on the day the government said employers continue to slash jobs. The August unemployment rate was higher than expected, 6.1 percent. That is up 4/10 percent from July and the highest rate in some five years. Anthony Mason begins our coverage. ANTHONY MASON reporting: The housing and credit crises continue to take a growing toll on the economy. Another 84,000 jobs disappeared in August; nearly 9 1/2 million Americans are now out of work. (Graphic on screen) Unemployment 9.4 million Americans out of work Mr. PETER MORICI (Economist, University of Maryland): It takes consumers to drive the economy, and if folks keep losing jobs month after month, 600,000 over eight months, we're not going to have any consumers left. Mr. STEPHEN STUDNICKA (Laid-off Worker): I send out typically 50 resumes a week and I get maybe one or two responses. MASON: Fifty-four-year-old Stephen Studnicka was laid off from his New York financial services job back in December. He spends four to six hours a day looking for work. Mr. STUDNICKA: I have had many interviews. I have had no offers. MASON: The eight straight months of job losses have become increasingly broad-based. Only the education and health sectors have shown any significant hiring. Mr. STUART HOFFMAN (Chief Economist, PNC Financial Services Group): That sure looks to me and feels to me, and certainly to the American consumer it feels like an economic recession. Offscreen Voice: Sixty, eighty... MASON: There are other worrisome signals. More than four million Americans who hold mortgages are either behind in their payments or in foreclosure. That's more than 9 percent, a record. Mr. HOFFMAN: So our feeling is house prices, by whatever measure you use, will continue to decline for the next 12 months. MASON: Tax rebates gave the economy a booster shot this summer, but the last checks went out in July. Mr. MORICI: The stimulus package just pushed off the problem into the second half of the year. Now the chickens are coming home to roost. MASON: The only good news? The slowing economy has slowed demand for gas, so prices have plummeted. Crude closed at $106 a barrel today, down more than $40 from its high in July. And a gallon of gas is now 44 cents cheaper than it was two months ago. (Graphic on screen) Crude Oil Prices Today $106.23 per barrel July 11 $147.27 per barrel Gasoline Prices Today $3.67 per gallon July 17 $4.11 per gallon MASON: But the job picture doesn't look like it'll get any brighter soon. Without government hiring last month, we would have lost more than 100,000 jobs, and some economists are now forecasting a 7 percent unemployment rate by the end of the year. Russ: MITCHELL: Mm. Anthony Mason, thank you very much.