A surge in hiring offers Vice President Kamala Harris a fresh defense in her fight with Donald Trump over the economy, as the pair jockey to frame their visions in the home stretch of the campaign.
Friday’s jobs report, which beat all analyst estimates and pushed the unemployment rate down to 4.1 percent, is the latest in a drumbeat of good economic news for Harris. It follows a deal Thursday to end, at least temporarily, a massive port worker strike that threatened to spike costs on imported goods with just over a month left before Election Day.
The economy, and affordability, remains a core issue of the 2024 presidential race, with Trump pinning blame for high grocery prices and borrowing costs on Harris and President Joe Biden. Chicago Federal Reserve President Austan Goolsbee called the jobs data a “superb report.”
“You really couldn’t ask realistically for a better report for the economy — coupled with finding out that the port strike is not going to be an extended matter, and that at least for months, this is not going to be an issue,” Goolsbee told Bloomberg Television Friday. “Those are two pieces of very good news.”
Trump and Harris have rolled out dueling economic plans in recent weeks, with Trump calling for tax cuts and sprawling tariffs to push supply chains to the US, and Harris calling the tariffs a sales tax. She’s pitching an “opportunity economy” that includes tax increases for corporations, an expansion of a tax credit for business startups and expanded child benefit payments.
The hope for Democrats is that voter perceptions of the economy – which has been an albatross for the Biden-Harris administration as voters bristle at high inflation that has punished incumbents in elections worldwide – rebound to reflect generally strong topline data.
“Many people predicted that we would not be able to do this — have this kind of recovery and have incredible job growth while keeping the unemployment rate low, while bringing down inflation and interest rates,” Julie Su, the acting Secretary of Labor, told Bloomberg Television Friday. “All of those things are now happening.”
Trump’s campaign said that the report showed a reduction in manufacturing jobs and suggested the economy was primarily benefitting immigrants, while noting the continued pressure of inflation.
“Kamala Harris and Joe Biden have built back broke, losing 34,000 manufacturing jobs in just the past two months as foreign countries benefit from Harris’ weak economic policies, and Harris’ open border policies have destroyed 825,000 jobs for native-born Americans while 1.2 million foreign-born workers gained employment,” Trump spokeswoman Karoline Leavitt said in a statement.
Harris remains underwater on the economy as an issue in her race against Trump, though she has closed the gap since Biden dropped out.
Just 33 percent of voters in battleground states, say the national economy is on the right track, according to a Bloomberg News/Morning Consult poll of likely voters in the seven top battleground states published last week.
But that’s up from 31 percent the month prior and 28 percent in the last poll before Biden dropped out, previous waves of the poll found.
Trump holds a lead among battleground voters asked who they trust more to manage the economy — 49 percent say Trump to 45 percent who say Harris, the poll found. But that also has narrowed.
Trump led Biden 51-37 percent when respondents were asked who they trust more on the economy. That 14-point gap is now four points for Harris.
The resolution of the port strike also heads off what could have cascaded into a fresh supply chain crisis that would have exacerbated voter concerns about costs.
“The most important thing — our ports are back open, our dock workers are back at work, American consumers won’t see really any effect of this at all,” White House National Economic Council Director Lael Brainard said Friday in an appearance on Bloomberg Television.
With assistance from Michael McKee and Katie Greifeld.