November Surprise: Last Jobs Report Before Election Hits Hard, with Worst Numbers in Years

Friday’s jobs report might as well be called a “November surprise” for Kamala Harris's campaign, underscoring a point that Donald Trump has emphasized repeatedly: his administration’s economic conditions were stronger.

According to Fox Business, the Bureau of Labor Statistics revealed that only 12,000 jobs were added in October—well below the 113,000 anticipated by economists. The unemployment rate stayed at 4.1 percent.

This October figure marks the lowest monthly job gain since the pandemic peak in December 2020.

Fox Business commentator Charles Payne labeled the report a “disaster,” challenging claims that events like the Boeing strike and hurricanes Helene and Milton primarily account for the disappointing figure.

“[It’s] disingenuous to assume ‘experts’ that contributed to consensus didn’t factor into their estimates hurricanes and strikes. Moreover, huge negative revisions continue to reveal a much weaker labor market than the media and economists portray,” Payne posted on X.

The report also contained sharp downward revisions for the previous two months. The August job numbers were revised down by 81,000, reducing the total from 159,000 to just 78,000, while September saw a 31,000 reduction, from 254,000 to 223,000.

This trend of downward revisions during the Biden-Harris administration has been ongoing. In August, the BLS announced that job additions between March 2023 and March 2024 were overstated by 818,000.

In the October report, health care and government jobs led with 52,000 and 40,000 new positions, respectively. Meanwhile, temporary help services saw a decrease of 49,000, and manufacturing dropped by 46,000.

Conservative commentator Ben Shapiro noted, “Kamalanomics has now produced a NEGATIVE private sector jobs report. Only government hiring people kept the overall employment number in the black.”

It's important to remember that any federal hiring or state and local hires funded through grants are sustained by massive deficit spending—over $1.8 trillion in fiscal year 2024 alone.

This level of deficit spending is inflationary, a frequent criticism of the Biden-Harris economy.

Hopefully, voters will consider this jobs report and the overall economic landscape as they think about returning to the prosperity seen under Donald Trump.