Unemployment sends shiver through Bush campaign

BLEAK US unemployment figures yesterday underscored the fact that President George Bush can expect no help from the economy in his uphill battle for re-election, in little over eight weeks.

The unemployment rate in August actually declined 0.1 points to 7.6 per cent. But the finding that sent new shivers through both financial markets and the Bush campaign headquarters was a 97,000 drop in the number of factory jobs - the biggest such fall in eight months.

A crisis of confidence on Wall Street would wreak even more havoc on the Bush campaign. Ominously, stocks were 10.27 points lower in New York at the close of trading yesterday Bush's woes, page 11