​

Former President Trump will hammer his rival Vice President Harris over the economic performance of the Biden-Harris administration after a disappointing jobs report was released on Friday.

At a rally later this afternoon in Gastonia, North Carolina, Trump will blame “Hurricane Kamala” for job losses attributed to recent natural disasters, including Hurricanes Helene and Milton.

“It was announced yesterday that our country has lost nearly 30,000 private sector jobs in the past month alone, along with nearly 50,000 manufacturing jobs in one month. They try to blame the hurricane for the jobs numbers – but it wasn’t Hurricane Helene. “It was Hurricane Kamala,” Trump will say, according to his prepared remarks.

“Its catastrophic economic agenda has wiped out more than 100,000 manufacturing jobs since the start of this year. Last month, 150,000 Americans went on the unemployment list, and nearly a quarter of a million people dropped out of the workforce.

“This is DISQUALIFYING – we cannot tolerate this disaster for another four years.”

US job growth slowed in October and fell well short of economists’ expectations, while the unemployment rate remained unchanged.

The Department of Labor reported Friday that employers added 12,000 jobs in October, well below the 113,000 jobs forecast by LSEG economists and the lowest number since December 2020.

The unemployment rate was 4.1%, in line with expectations.

The number of jobs added in the previous two months were both revised downwards, with August job creation revised downwards by 81,000 from a gain of 159,000 to 78,000, while September was revised downwards by 31,000 from a gain of 254,000 to 223,000 .

Private sector wage costs shrank by 28,000 in October after LSEG economists forecast they would rise by 90,000.

The manufacturing sector saw employment decline by 46,000 jobs in October, which was largely due to strike activity in the transportation equipment manufacturing sector, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS). About 33,000 unionized machinists at Boeing have been on strike since early September.

The construction sector added 8,000 jobs – less than the average of 20,000 jobs per month over the past 12 months.

The health care industry added 52,300 jobs in October, close to the average monthly increase of 58,000 over the past year.

The government added 40,000 jobs in October, largely in line with average monthly gains of 43,000 over the past 12 months.

The BLS noted that Hurricane Helene made landfall in the Southeast before the reference period for its employment surveys, while Hurricane Milton hit the same region during the reporting period.

Eric Revell of Fox Business contributed to this report.