Weakest Jobs Report Since 2020, New Sign Economy Is Struggling

The Labor Department is out with its final economic report before Election Day, and the news isn't good.

Friday brought us the weakest jobs report since 2020.  Employers added a mere 12,000 jobs nationwide last month – a major decrease from 223,000 in September. 

The employment report for October also revealed the government's optimistic estimate of job gains in August and September was wrong. It turns out 112,000 fewer jobs were added, indicating that the labor market wasn't as robust then as initially thought.

Bill Adams, chief economist at Comerica Bank, wrote that "the downward revisions to job growth through September show it was cooling before" the economy took hits from hurricane damage in the Southeast.

Another warning sign that economists look at is job "quits". September brought a plunge on that metric with 3.1 million Americans quitting their jobs, the fewest in more than four years. A drop in "quits" tends to indicate that more workers are losing confidence in their ability to land a job elsewhere.

“The cooling of the jobs market is still ongoing,’’ said Sarah House, senior economist at Wells Fargo. “Overall, the jobs market - it’s not falling apart, but it’s too early to say that conditions have stabilized.’’

In the broader view, many people are exasperated by high prices, which remain about 20% higher on average than they were before inflation began accelerating in early 2021. 

Click the video above for more: CBN News spoke with Richard Stern, director of the Federal Budget Policy Center at the Heritage Foundation.