On The Money — What to know about the October jobs report
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The U.S. labor is still strong, but could be losing steam. We’ll also look at Sen. Joe Manchin’s (D-W.Va.) call for a debt reduction deal and Elon Musk’s biggest obstacle taking over Twitter.
⏰ But first, find out why there’s a push to eliminate Daylight Saving Time.
Welcome to On The Money, your nightly guide to everything affecting your bills, bank account and bottom line. For The Hill, we’re Sylvan Lane, Aris Folley and Karl Evers-Hillstrom. Someone forward you this newsletter?
261K jobs added in October, unemployment ticks up
The U.S. added 261,000 jobs in October and the unemployment rate rose slightly to 3.7 percent, according to data released Friday by the Labor Department.
Economists expected the U.S. to add roughly 190,000 jobs last month and keep the unemployment rate steady at 3.5 percent, according to consensus estimates.
While the overall jobs gain was better than anticipated, the labor market showed other signs of slowing under the weight of high prices, stubborn inflation, rising interest rates and a weakening global economy.
Over the last few months, the job market has consistently signaled that it is cooling,” Daniel Zhao, senior economist at Glassdoor, wrote in a Friday analysis.
“There’s still room for jobs growth to cool before red flags are raised about the health of the labor market.”
The context: Economists have expected the U.S. job market to weaken from the historically strong levels since throughout 2021 and earlier this year. The U.S. has added roughly 400,000 jobs each month since the start of the year, and there are still nearly two open jobs for each unemployed American.
The Fed is hoping to bring inflation down by slowing the economy and weakening the job market enough to make households and businesses spend less money, but without causing a recession.
Sylvan explains here.
Biden bashes GOP economic message after unemployment ticks up
LET’S MAKE A DEAL
Manchin calls for deal on Social Security, Medicare, Medicaid in new Congress
Centrist Sen. Joe Manchin (D-W.Va.) on Thursday called for a broad bipartisan deal to protect the solvency of Social Security, Medicare and Medicaid, popular programs that could face serious funding issues over the next few decades.
“You’re going to get your financial house in order. We cannot live with this crippling debt,” Manchin, whose pivotal vote both delayed and helped pass big pieces of President Biden’s agenda, told Fortune’s Alan Murray at a CEO conference.
“If we don’t look at the trust funds that are going bankrupt, whether they be Medicare, Medicaid, Social Security, highway, all the ones — there are tremendous problems right now,” Manchin said when asked where he sees areas of potential compromise in Washington after the Nov. 8 midterm elections.
The background: If Manchin continues to push for a bipartisan deal to shore up the finances of Social Security and Medicare, he could have a negotiating partner in Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.), who has proposed broad entitlement reform on several previous occasions.
House Republicans have also pledged to use the expiration of the federal debt limit to force Democrats to the table on spending cuts, risking a global financial meltdown if they drive the U.S. into default.
Here’s more from The Hill’s Alexander Bolton.
BIG DIP
Twitter has seen ‘massive drop’ in revenue amid takeover, Musk says
Twitter owner Elon Musk said on Friday that the company has seen a “massive drop” in revenue since he took its helm last week.
“Twitter has had a massive drop in revenue, due to activist groups pressuring advertisers, even though nothing has changed with content moderation and we did everything we could to appease the activists,” Musk wrote on the platform.
The dip comes as major advertisers pause their activity to assess how Musk plans to overhaul Twitter.
There’s been a surge of racist and other discriminatory tweets following his purchase of the social media platform.
The Hill’s Chloe Folmar has more here.
BUYER BEWARE
Why you may soon have to pay for that COVID-19 test
The federal government is poised to stop paying for COVID-19 vaccines, tests and treatments in the coming months, shifting the costs onto the public.
Experts say most Americans are not aware that this will happen and will be in for a major case of sticker shock. They warn without additional protections or funding, the transition to commercialized treatments and preventive services will lead to health barriers.
“The way that it works in the U.S. [right now] is actually more similar to how a lot of health care works in other countries too. But when the public health emergency ends, it’s going to start looking like health care in the U.S does, which is that it’s complicated and it costs a lot of money,” said Cynthia Cox, an insurance expert and vice president at the Kaiser Family Foundation.
The Hill’s Nathaniel Weixel breaks it down.
Good to Know
If you recently received a letter from the IRS, don’t ignore it; you could be entitled to extra money.
The tax agency announced, in mid-October, that it would begin sending out letters to more than 9 million people who may qualify for thousands of dollars worth of stimulus payments and tax credits.
Here’s what else have our eye on:
White House national security adviser Jake Sullivan traveled to Kyiv on Friday to meet with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky and announce a new $400 million military assistance package the United States is sending amid the Russian invasion.
White House officials announced a “game-changers” initiative for research and development projects advancing the Biden administration’s goal of net-zero emissions by 2050.
That’s it for today. Thanks for reading and check out The Hill’s Finance page for the latest news and coverage. We’ll see you Monday.
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