US Adds Just 29,000 Jobs as Unemployment Rises Before Midterms
September hiring slows sharply; jobless rate edges to 4.2 percent in last report before Election Day.
2 min read
File photo: The New York Stock Exchange on Wall Street. Photo: Arild Vågen, CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons
At a White House event earlier this week he said, “I’ve done a very bad job of explaining how good the country is doing,” the BBC reported.
An AP-NORC poll released Thursday found just 17 percent of Americans approve of Trump’s handling of cost-of-living issues and 26 percent approve of his handling of the economy overall, both new lows for him in that survey, according to the BBC. Al Jazeera reported that 61 percent of those polled said the economy is worse now than when Trump took office in January 2025.
Higher prices remain the dominant complaint. Mortgage rates jumped to about 7.28 percent in the week’s largest move since 2022, The Guardian said, while oil-driven fuel costs continue to squeeze households. The Federal Reserve raised rates last month for the first time in three years; markets now see a higher chance it will hold rates steady at its late-October meeting, with CME FedWatch odds of no change near 77 percent after the jobs report, Al Jazeera reported.
Markets and the road to Election Day
Equity markets rose on the news as investors priced in a less aggressive path for further tightening. For voters, the immediate takeaway is simpler: hiring has slowed just as campaigning intensifies, and the White House’s upbeat messaging faces another hard data check before Election Day.
