Rahm Emanuel says U.S. job picture much better than four years ago WASHINGTON, Nov. 4 (UPI) -- The latest job numbers proved the U.S. economy was doing much better than it was when President Obama took office, a top adviser said Sunday. Chicago Mayor Rahm Emanuel, Obama's former White House chief of staff, said in CNN's "State of the Union" that while Friday's report that 171,000 jobs had been created in October might not seem like much, it was a dramatic improvement over four years ago. Emanuel said the first jobs report the new Obama administration received in 2009 said more than 800,000 jobs had been lost in a single month. Compared to those grim statistics, the 171,000 positions filled last month looked pretty good both to the administration and the U.S.electorate, he said. "That's a million job swing in the right direction," Emanuel said. I think people know it's no time to go backwards, no time to go to the policies that led us into the ditch. Emanuel predicted Obama's strategy to strengthen the middle class gave him a solid foundation with voters that would withstand the final challenges from Republican challenger Mitt Romney. But Republican Gov. Portman of Ohio, a key battleground state, countered voters were increasingly savvy about the meaning of government job figures and would not buy into claims Obama's policies were working. Portman told CNN the figures showed not only an official unemployment rate still stuck near 8 percent but did not factor in what he said was a huge number of discouraged workers who had dropped out of the labor market. "In fact, unemployment is higher today than it was when President Obama was sworn in," Portman argued. The real number is even worse because as you know, a lot of folks have left the workplace.