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MaddowBlog

From The Rachel Maddow Show

In the final pre-election jobs report, U.S. hot streak continues

If the midterm elections were based entirely on job growth, Democrats would be positioned for an excellent year.

By Steve Benen

Expectations heading into this morning showed projections of about 200,000 new jobs added in the United States in October. As it turns out, according to the new report from the Bureau of Labor Statistics, the preliminary tally suggests the domestic job market did quite a bit better than that. CNBC reported this morning:

Job growth was stronger than expected in October despite Federal Reserve interest rate increases aimed at slowing what is still a strong labor market. Nonfarm payrolls grew by 261,000 for the month while the unemployment rate moved higher to 3.7%, the Labor Department reported Friday.

With a couple of months left in 2022, the economy has created over 4 million jobs this year, and that total may yet climb higher before the year ends. By any fair measure, that’s an extraordinary total, more in line with what we’d expect to see in a full year.

As for the politics, let’s circle back to previous coverage to put the data in perspective. Over the course of the first three years of Donald Trump’s term — when the then-president said the United States’ economy was the greatest in the history of the planet — the economy created roughly 6.4 million jobs. This included all of 2017, 2018 and 2019.

According to the latest tally, the U.S. economy has created 10.8 million jobs since January 2021 — far in excess of the combined total of Trump’s first three years. In fact, this year’s total to date exceeds any individual year of the former president’s term.

In recent months, Republicans have responded to developments like these by pretending not to notice them. I have a hunch GOP officials will keep the trend going today.

Postscript: For some additional context, consider job growth by year over the past decade:

2013: 2.3 million

2014: 3 million

2015: 2.7 million

2016: 2.3 million

2017: 2.1 million

2018: 2.3 million

2019: 2 million

2020: -9.3 million

2021: 6.7 million

2022 (so far): 4 million

In early 2021, such a turnaround would’ve been very difficult to believe. And yet, here we are.

Follow our 2022 midterm elections live blog at msnbc.com/midterms beginning Nov. 7 for the latest results, news and expert analysis in real time.

Steve Benen

Steve Benen is a producer for "The Rachel Maddow Show," the editor of MaddowBlog and an MSNBC political contributor. He's also the bestselling author of "The Impostors: How Republicans Quit Governing and Seized American Politics."