With election over, jobs report gets less scrutiny

WASHINGTON (AP) — Reaction to the monthly jobs numbers isn’t what it used to be.

Friday’s unemployment report — the first since President Barack Obama’s re-election — garnered just brief mentions from the White House and Republicans. Gone was the frenzy of political posturing that followed every monthly release throughout the presidential campaign.

Obama would try to cast each economic snapshot as a sign of slow and steady recovery, while Republican rival Mitt Romney bemoaned the unemployment rate as a sign that the country needed new economic leadership.

But there’s a new political reality in Washington. Obama is sticking around for four more years, no matter what the unemployment rate is.