I'm Jerry Willis, and this is the Fox Business Rundown.

Friday, November 1st, 2024.

America has gotten its last economic snapshot before election day, and it's a doozy.

The latest jobs report showing a major hiring slowdown, raising questions for voters as they head to the ballot box in the next few days.

This does not bode well for the American people going forward who are going to find it harder and harder and harder to find a job over the next 12 months.

A weaker than expected jobs report released Friday morning gives voters a fresh picture of the U.S.

economy as we quickly approach the eve of election day, the economy growing by just 12,000 jobs

dramatically short of economist expectations of 100,000.

You can see right in the data that U.S. job growth did take a hit last month, and that can be partially attributed to a few factors, a sizable labor strike movement from Boeing workers, as well as many American laborers negatively impacted by hurricanes.

However, even when accounting for those factors, economists agreed the report spelled a concerning

data point that could be part of a larger trend. Unemployment ticked up by a fraction of a

percentage point and revisions payroll numbers subtracted 112,000 jobs from the August and September

labor data. This report giving the Trump campaign some pre-election day fodder,

as the former president is already touting this report as an economic catastrophe.

Meanwhile, the Biden-Harris administration has said the economy remains strong.

As voters head to the ballot box in the coming days,

how should they consider the health of the economy given this fresh data and what should they make of the numbers? Yeah, bad and ugly is what it

is. But, you know, and we had heard in the days leading up to this report, the White House,

really sort of sort of behind the scenes, sort of pulling people aside saying, hey, you know,

expect this to be

lower. Here's the reason. Edward Lawrence is Fox Business Network's White House correspondent.

And they're blaming this here at the White House on Hurricane Helene as well as Hurricane

...