The final jobs report before voters head to the polls on Tuesday is already being spun in every direction by the media. The government added 161,000 jobs and the unemployment fell to 4.9 percent. The New York Times claims it is a success story showing "healthy growth" and "higher wages." ABC News, however, acknowledges the report did not quite meet expectations.
Other outlets, like CNS News, are suggesting it's an outright failure, considering 94,609,000 Americans
are not in the labor force. That's hundreds of thousands more than last month, CNS notes.
The labor force participation rate dropped a tenth of a point to 62.8 percent. In other words, 62.8 percent of the non-institutionalized, civilian population over the age of 16 is either employed or are actively looking for work, while the other 37.2 percent is not working or even looking.
The Republican National Committee is also not impressed.
“Yet another month of disappointing job growth means many American families are still hurting in the Obama economy,” RNC Chairman Reince Priebus said in a statement on Friday. “With millions of Americans still out of the labor force and the country treading water on economic growth, voters looking for a new direction will not find it with Hillary Clinton, whose tax plan will shrink wages, kill 700,000 jobs, and stifle prosperity. Our country is in sore need of new ideas to get our economy to full strength and only a lifelong job creator like Donald Trump can deliver a robust pro-growth, pro-opportunity agenda.”
The economy is always a top priority for voters ahead of Election Day. Depending on which news they read, it could go either way. In polling, voters say they trust Donald Trump more than Hillary Clinton to take hold of our economy and put it back on the right track.