During the Sept. 20 Univision interview, Obama said the immigration failure was his greatest mistake, even though unemployment among Americans has reached record levels.
The formal unemployment rate has remained above 8.1 percent throughout Obama’s term.
Millions more Americans have dropped out of the workforce, and millions more are working part-time jobs. GOP leaders, including Romney, say 23 million Americans are unemployed or underemployed.
The unemployment rate is higher among low-skill workers.
Roughly half of black men between 18 and 30 do not have full-time jobs, according to data provided by the Bureau of Labor Statistics.
At least 10.1 percent of working-age Hispanics are unemployed. Twenty-nine percent of Hispanics aged 16 to 19 who want a job can’t find a job.
Unemployment among university graduates is also very high. For example, in 2011, 54 percent of bachelor-degree graduates aged 25 or under were unemployed or underemployed, according to an April study by academics at Northwestern University.
Overall, unemployment is so high that four times as many people dropped out of the workforce in August as gained jobs.
The high unemployment rate has persisted despite Obama’s support for the 2009 stimulus — which cost roughly $819 billion — and massive deficit spending of more than $1 trillion per year.
