October 2, 2020

Last Jobs Report Before the Election

The economy added 661,000 jobs in September, as the recovery continues.

It’s the mark of a fairly healthy economic recovery when news reports express disappointment with a gain of 661,000 jobs in a month, but that’s where we are for this last jobs report before the November election. Economists had predicted 800,000 jobs in September and a headline unemployment rate of 8.2%. While the jobs numbers were below expectations — primarily because of, as CNBC reports, “a drop in government hiring” — the headline unemployment rate dropped to 7.9% from 8.4% in August. Back in February, which seems so very long ago, that rate was a historically low 3.5%.

Of the 22 million jobs lost in March and April’s economic bloodbath, the U.S. economy has recovered more than 11 million of them. But layoffs persist in some sectors. Just three companies account for 60,000 layoffs this week — Disney permanently laid off 28,000 theme-park workers, while American Airlines and United Airlines cut 32,000 jobs — and those losses aren’t included in the September report.

Democrats will, of course, attempt to hang a “sluggish” recovery around President Donald Trump’s neck. That might be fair enough in “the buck stops here” sense, but in reality it’s a gross distortion. The nation’s two biggest states, California and New York, are both run by Democrats and both remain significantly restricted economically.

The fallout in New York? According to state comptroller Thomas DiNapoli, half of New York City’s restaurants and bars are at risk of having to “close forever.” That could cost 150,000 jobs — job losses that would be the responsibility of Democrat NYC Mayor Bill de Blasio and Democrat New York Governor Andrew Cuomo, not the president. It is their orders, not his, that keep such establishments running at a fraction of capacity, if at all.

Meanwhile, The Washington Post reports that the COVID recession “is the most unequal in modern U.S. history” because unemployment has “overwhelmingly affected low-wage, minority workers.” Forgive us if we get the impression that blue-state governors and mayors find more political benefit in “unequal” job losses than they do in helping their own constituents by fully reopening the economy. These aren’t statistics or political pawns; they’re individuals’ livelihoods and futures.

On a final note, Congress is stalled on another COVID relief package. (The expiring money from the March CARES Act is why the airlines laid off all those employees.) Nancy Pelosi’s House Democrats passed a larded-up $2.2 trillion package Wednesday, but without a single Republican vote and no hope of Senate passage. Ironically, if Democrats would get government out of the way, no one would need another debt-bomb relief package. But at least Democrats have a campaign issue.

Who We Are

The Patriot Post is a highly acclaimed weekday digest of news analysis, policy and opinion written from the heartland — as opposed to the MSM’s ubiquitous Beltway echo chambers — for grassroots leaders nationwide. More

What We Offer

On the Web

We provide solid conservative perspective on the most important issues, including analysis, opinion columns, headline summaries, memes, cartoons and much more.

Via Email

Choose our full-length Digest or our quick-reading Snapshot for a summary of important news. We also offer Cartoons & Memes on Monday and Alexander’s column on Wednesday.

Our Mission

The Patriot Post is steadfast in our mission to extend the endowment of Liberty to the next generation by advocating for individual rights and responsibilities, supporting the restoration of constitutional limits on government and the judiciary, and promoting free enterprise, national defense and traditional American values. We are a rock-solid conservative touchstone for the expanding ranks of grassroots Americans Patriots from all walks of life. Our mission and operation budgets are not financed by any political or special interest groups, and to protect our editorial integrity, we accept no advertising. We are sustained solely by you. Please support The Patriot Fund today!


The Patriot Post and Patriot Foundation Trust, in keeping with our Military Mission of Service to our uniformed service members and veterans, are proud to support and promote the National Medal of Honor Heritage Center, the Congressional Medal of Honor Society, both the Honoring the Sacrifice and Warrior Freedom Service Dogs aiding wounded veterans, the National Veterans Entrepreneurship Program, the Folds of Honor outreach, and Officer Christian Fellowship, the Air University Foundation, and Naval War College Foundation, and the Naval Aviation Museum Foundation. "Greater love has no one than this, to lay down one's life for his friends." (John 15:13)

★ PUBLIUS ★

“Our cause is noble; it is the cause of mankind!” —George Washington

Please join us in prayer for our nation — that righteous leaders would rise and prevail and we would be united as Americans. Pray also for the protection of our Military Patriots, Veterans, First Responders, and their families. Please lift up your Patriot team and our mission to support and defend our Republic's Founding Principle of Liberty, that the fires of freedom would be ignited in the hearts and minds of our countrymen.

The Patriot Post is protected speech, as enumerated in the First Amendment and enforced by the Second Amendment of the Constitution of the United States of America, in accordance with the endowed and unalienable Rights of All Mankind.

Copyright © 2024 The Patriot Post. All Rights Reserved.

The Patriot Post does not support Internet Explorer. We recommend installing the latest version of Microsoft Edge, Mozilla Firefox, or Google Chrome.