The U.S. economy added 12,000 new jobs in October, significantly lower than forecasters had expected, which had anticipated an increase of about 100,000. The unemployment rate remained steady at 4.1%. President Joe Biden said events such as hurricanes and strikes had negatively affected job growth, but he expected an improvement in November. Biden said that “the U.S. economy continues to show signs of strength.”

On the other side of the political spectrum, Donald Trump’s campaign has slammed the labor data, calling it a “catastrophe” and blaming Kamala Harris for the damage done to the economy. Trump supporters say the vice president’s economic approach has led to the loss of nearly 30,000 private sector jobs and nearly 50,000 manufacturing jobs in just one month. The campaign has argued that working families have been hurt by the Harris-Biden administration’s economic policies and has promised that Trump will address and fix these economic problems.

The state of the labor market is therefore at the center of the political debate in the United States, with both parties using the data to support their respective positions. While the current government tries to maintain a message of optimism regarding the resilience of the economy, the opposition points to the negative numbers as evidence of the failure of the implemented policies.

In this turbulent environment, future developments will be closely monitored to see whether the prediction of an improvement in November can actually be realized or whether the negative trend will continue to affect employment in the country. Reactions to the published numbers also reveal how crucial the issue of employment is for voters and their economic prospects. With future elections on the horizon, any change in the data could have a significant impact on the political dynamics at play.