"Very good news": Strong September report shows U.S. added 254k jobs

The jobs report is the latest in a wave of good economic news

By Griffin Eckstein

News Fellow

Published October 4, 2024 4:44PM (EDT)

U.S. President Joe Biden holds news conference at the 2024 NATO Summit on July 11, 2024 in Washington, DC. (Kevin Dietsch/Getty Images)
U.S. President Joe Biden holds news conference at the 2024 NATO Summit on July 11, 2024 in Washington, DC. (Kevin Dietsch/Getty Images)

The U.S. added 254,000 jobs in September, demonstrating strong economic vitals just 31 days before the election.

The report from the Bureau of Labor Statistics was released Friday morning and showed the U.S. in September had the strongest job growth in six months.

The unemployment rate, which has hovered around 4% since 2022, hit a 54-year low in January of last year. September’s numbers showed once again that the economy remains strong.

Former President Donald Trump has hit Kamala Harris hard on economic issues in recent speeches, claiming that she would usher in the worst recession since the Great Depression. His remarks came despite the stock market’s record highs during her tenure as vice president.

The Biden administration touted the report as evidence of policy successes.

“The past two days, we’ve gotten some very good news about the American economy,” President Joe Biden said in a Friday press briefing, celebrating the reports and a swift end to a dockworkers' strike that spurred fears of shortages. 

The strong economic numbers come two weeks after the Federal Reserve significantly cut interest rates, an indication that the U.S. moved through the deepest period of inflation while avoiding a recession.

Trump dismissed the jobs numbers, saying that the increase in overall jobs was due to work going to "illegal migrants."


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