Friday’s jobs report could be the last normal one for a while

September’s jobs report, due out Friday morning, is expected to show that the US labor market has slowed somewhat but remains on solid footing.

September’s jobs report, due out Friday morning, is expected to show that the US labor market has slowed somewhat but remains on solid footing. And while status quo isn’t always the most exciting of states, further signs of stability could bode well for the broader economy and the Federal Reserve, which is closely watching for signals that the slowdown in the labor market is progressing into an overall economic downturn. “The next two employment reports will be critical in shaping the Fed’s November policy decision,” Lydia Boussour, senior economist at EY-Parthenon, wrote Wednesday in a note. While September’s employment data is expected to stay relatively tame, the same can’t be said for the October jobs report, which is set to be released on November 1, just days before the presidential election. That month’s data could very well be heavily distorted by three significant disruptions: the devastation from Hurricane Helene; the ongoing Boeing machinists’ strike; and the short-lived, but massive, strike at US ports along the East and Gulf Coasts. The strikes and hurricane-related effects “are not going to permanently alter the trajectory of the labor market; but September is probably our last clean reading on the labor market for a while,” Ryan Sweet, chief US economist at Oxford Economics, told CNN earlier this week.