The US economy added just 12,000 new positions in October, in by far the weakest jobs report of the Biden administration, as the closely watched number was hit hard by hurricanes and the Boeing strike. The figure, published by the Bureau of Labor Statistics just days before the US election, was far below the average forecast of 100,000 job gains in a poll of economists by Bloomberg. It also fell far short of September’s downwardly revised figure of 223,000 new jobs.
The Biden administration has argued that it has brought down inflation as well as overseen a booming recovery in the labour market. Harris is less trusted on the economy than her Republican rival Donald Trump, according to the final monthly poll for the Financial Times and the University of Michigan Ross School of Business. Friday’s jobs data was gathered during the week that Hurricane Milton made landfall in Florida and shortly after Hurricane Helene slammed the south-east of the US.