U.S. job growth slowed sharply in October, temporarily hit by hurricanes and labor strikes, in the latest big economic picture in a cutting-edge presidential election campaign where cost-of-living concerns have dominated voters’ concerns. .

The world’s largest economy added just 12,000 jobs last month, well below expectations and below the revised 223,000 in September, the Labor Department said. The unemployment rate remained unchanged at 4.1 percent.

Hiring and unemployment data will be closely analyzed by the teams of both presidential candidates (Democrat Kamala Harris and Republican Donald Trump), but employment numbers would have been higher if not for the devastating hurricanes and worker strikes.

Some unusually weak hiring numbers threaten to affect the way Americans view the job market, some analysts warned.

The collective impact of hurricanes Helene and Milton, along with work stoppages by Boeing workers and others, could reduce job growth by up to 100,000 jobs, Council of Economic Advisers Chairman Jared Bernstein previously said.

But the latest figure was still well below the market consensus estimate of 120,000.

This is the slowest hiring rate since late 2020 and since President Joe Biden took office.

“Job growth is expected to rebound in November as our hurricane recovery and rebuilding efforts continue,” Biden said Friday, also highlighting a new contract proposal for striking Boeing workers.

But Trump called the report “a huge shame, blaming Harris for the decline in manufacturing employment, even though it was hit hard by strike activity.”

Average hourly earnings rose 0.4 percent from September, slightly above expectations.

The Labor Department said its survey “is not designed to isolate the effects of extreme weather events.”

But he added: “Employment estimates in some industries are likely to have been affected by the hurricanes.”

The report also said that manufacturing employment fell by 46,000, due to a drop of 44,000 in transportation equipment manufacturing that was largely due to strike activity.

In addition to about 33,000 Boeing workers on strike, others who did so included 5,000 Textron Aviation machinists and 3,400 hotel workers, said Lydia Boussour, senior economist at EY.

In the labor survey that tracks hiring, workers on strike during the entire reference salary period are not counted as employees, Boussour added.

Meanwhile, Hurricane Helene made landfall in late September, meaning some people were likely unable to return to work when the survey was conducted.

Similarly, the week of the survey coincided with the landfall of Hurricane Milton.

Economists Carl Weinberg and Rubeela Farooqi of High Frequency Economics suggested treating the hiring component of the report “as an unreliable indicator” of the true condition of the market.

A weaker hiring figure “will probably influence how people view economic conditions,” Farooqi told AFP.

More generally, “households are not feeling the benefits of a still-strong labor market,” he added, pointing to built-up inflation.

But economist Harry Holzer, a nonresident senior fellow at the Brookings Institution in Washington, expects the public was already expecting lower numbers this time.

A bigger problem would be a sharp slowdown after accounting for temporary factors.

“Rising incomes are keeping consumers’ pockets open. Any disruption in this would suggest the economy’s growth engine is starting to falter,” said Nationwide economist Oren Klachkin.

“The job market is cooling, but I wouldn’t call it cold,” he said.

Strikes and hurricanes only partially explain the weakness, warned economist Samuel Tombs of Pantheon Macroeconomics.

Payrolls, excluding temporary help or leisure and hospitality, typically hit hard by hurricanes, along with transportation equipment manufacturing, saw only half their average increase in the previous 12 months, he said.

There was no impact on the unemployment rate as those on strike or unable to work due to the weather are still counted as employees, he said.

But the survey that followed this showed a drop of 368,000 jobs, added Mortgage Bankers Association chief economist Mike Fratantoni.

While there are no major layoffs, there has been a steady reduction in job openings, he added.

Analysts expect the Fed to cut rates by a quarter percentage point next week, rather than making no cuts at all.

“Federal Reserve officials will likely scrutinize the noisy payroll numbers,” Boussour said.