U.S. presidential candidates Barack Obama and Mitt Romney each showed different responses to a U.S. payrolls report for September that showed unemployment in the world’s largest economy came below eight percent for the first time and fell to its lowest in nearly four years.

President Obama said on Friday at a campaigning event in Fairfax, Virginia that the jobs report had been the lowest since he had taken his presidency.

Meanwhile, his opponent Republican Mitt Romney said in a statement that the number of new jobs created in September was lower than a month before. Romney added that the report did not necessarily mean employment in the U.S. had improved.

The U.S. unemployment rate released late on Friday showed that unemployment in September fell sharply to seven-point-eight percent, zero-point-three percentage points lower than August. The rate matched the level seen in January 2009 when President Obama took office.