Joe Biden's Economy Once Again Adds More Jobs Than Expected, Not Bad Huh?

Tell us again how everything's terrible, just try.

The US employment picture continues to be positive, which is probably terrible news somehow because I guess we need people to be unemployed to get inflation under control? But it's pretty welcome news for the 261,000 Americans who got new nonfarm jobs in October, according to the Labor Department's monthly jobs report from the Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS). The jobs figure outpaced the Dow Jones estimate of 205,000 new jobs, while the unemployment rate edged up two tenths of a percent to 3.7 percent, a bit worse than the predicted 3.5 percent rate. The BLS notes that the unemployment rate has "been in a narrow range of 3.5 percent to 3.7 percent since March," which means the great big swings in employment stats we saw during the pandemic may finally be over — barring another huge outbreak, of course.

CNBC reports that stocks traded higher following the report's release, which seems weird because isn't the Fed supposed to react to job growth by continuing to raise interest rates until we're in a recession? Maybe the jobs report was good news in light of the fact that the Fed already announced another interest rate hike this week, resulting in stock losses, and this was good news of a "soft landing"? Maybe stocks and macroeconomics make as little sense as I've always suspected? I majored in literature and rhetoric, where creatively making shit up is what you're supposed to do.

Also too, average hourly wages are up a bit, although less than the rate of inflation. Here is where we bring you the ritual economist take, as if they know anything either.

“There has been some signs of cooling. Bur are seeing a pretty strong labor market,” said Elise Gould, senior economist at the Economic Policy Institute. “We did see a substantial increase in jobs. But there’s been a slowdown in the rate of increase. You would expect that as we get closer to full employment.”

Also, if the roots are strong, all will be well in the garden and there will be growth in the spring.

Over at the New York Times, it seems the jobs report shows the economy is "resilient," or at least the labor market is "stubbornly robust," and we think that's ... good? Or is it?

“All in all, the job market is still hot,” said Daniel Zhao, an economist at the career site Glassdoor. “There’s still some cushion before we actually hit the ground.”

The hope is that as the Fed raises interest rates a little at a time, job growth will slow down and reduce inflation, but without crashing; and in fact the last few jobs reports have been

slowing, albeit very gradually. The question is whether such measured slackening will lead to meaningfully lower inflation, a sought-after path that policymakers refer to as a soft landing.

Oh gosh, we hope that's what we get! A soft landing sounds comfortable. But maybe we won't?

Although wage growth has moderated slightly, workers are still seeing their pay rise at a level that the Fed has said is inconsistent with its long-term inflation goals. The share of adults participating in the labor force declined a little, suggesting that employers are not seeing a rush of new workers coming to fill available jobs. Neither measures offer the Fed much comfort.

“What I see in this is the imprint of beginning weakness,” said Diane Swonk, the chief economist at KPMG. “But it’s not enough to derail the Fed.”

For his part, Joe Biden said in a statement today that the jobs report "shows that our jobs recovery remains strong," and noted that the economy now has "137,000 more manufacturing jobs than we had before the pandemic," and reminded that during his presidency, we've gone from the mess of a pandemic economy to 10 million new jobs, record growth in manufacturing jobs (700,000 of 'em), and "historically low Black and Hispanic unemployment rates."

He also sought to preempt GOP complaints that the jobs growth would lead to more inflation, adding that

while comments by Republican leadership sure seem to indicate they are rooting for a recession, the US economy continues to grow and add jobs even as gas prices continue to come down.

Biden reiterated that inflation is a global problem and that his administration is making progress on it, what with the Inflation Reduction Act's measures to keep healthcare costs down, and the steady decline in gas prices since June. Republicans, he warned, don't have a plan to address inflation at all:

They want to increase prescription drug costs, health insurance costs, and energy costs, while giving more tax breaks to big corporations and the very wealthy. Here’s the deal: Cutting corporate taxes and allowing big pharma to raise prices again is the Republican inflation plan, and it’s a disaster.

Biden added that addressing inflation shouldn't mean putting people out of work, and hinted, just slightly, at his call earlier this week for windfall profit taxes on corporations that are making record profits off inflation, saying that he won't accept that

our largest, most profitable corporations shouldn’t have to pay their fair share. I will continue to work for an economy built from the bottom up and the middle out, not the top down as my Republican friends would have.

We're hoping Biden and Democratic candidates do talk up the jobs numbers in this last weekend of campaigning; voters don't seem likely to find a strong jobs report under Biden as a reason to go with Republicans.

Also, that gorgeous mural up top is just so perfect; go read the story of how it was moved by UAW Local 174 (three times!) as the local's Detroit union hall moved to new buildings, and then in 2016 it was finally moved and restored at Wayne State U's Walter P. Reuther Library of Labor & Urban Affairs. And enjoy the full-sized image, wow!

[ Bureau of Labor Statistics / CNBC / NYT / White House / Image:  Wayne State University, Walter P. Reuther Library of Labor & Urban Affairs]

Yr Wonkette is funded entirely by reader donations. if you can, please give $5 or $10 a month so we can keep pretending the economy makes any kind of sense, and also we can talk about American Literature if you want.

 Do your Amazon shopping through this link, because reasons .