alt Hacker Newsgovt is resetting the baseline now, so we will see some good numbers in November.
it's all about optics for mid term.
Replies
if the government was able to lie on the jobs report, why wouldn't they just continuously pretend that jobs are up from now all the way through the election? (all the way through to the presidential election, for that matter)
The 2026 midterm election date is November 3rd, the jobs numbers are released on the first Friday of the month, November 6th. Intentionally trending numbers down in August, with only two more jobs reports before the election, would be risky (and stupid, and extremely unlikely). The Trump Administration just doesn't look ahead like that either, they live in the perpetual now.
Maybe. But I think the government could just lie about both quarters and then restate after the election.
No. Very bad economic numbers in August before a midterm is not a cunning political optics move.