(FRI 10/7/22)

263K Jobs Added Last Month – The employment rate dropped back to 3.5%, its record low from July, as the economy added 263,000 jobs in September, the Commerce Department reported Friday. This may not be such good news for the Federal Reserve, however, which has been raising interest rates to slow the economy and 40-year-high inflation. 

According to the Commerce Department, leisure and hospitality added 83,000 jobs in September, with unemployment in the sector lower than pre-pandemic levels. Food services and drinking places added 60,000 jobs, and manufacturing employment rose by 22,000.

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‘Armageddon’ Warning – Russian President Vladimir Putin is “not joking” about threatening to use tactical nuclear weapons in his war on Ukraine, President Biden told a Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee fundraiser Thursday in New York City. He called Putin’s threat put the world at its highest risk of nuclear war since the 1962 Cuban Missile Crisis, Newsweek reports.

“He is not joking when he talks about potential use of tactical or nuclear weapons or biological and chemical weapons, because their military is, you might say, significantly underperforming,” Biden said.

Note: Biden was perhaps the first world leader to warn about Putin’s impending attack on Ukraine prior to Russia’s February 24 invasion.

--Edited by Todd Lassa