Labor numbers (or lack of) and the Trump economy (opens in new tab)

The elephant in the room? The long-delayed September employment numbers are finally out, and the news is mixed, much as expected. The economy added 119,000 jobs, while the unemployment rate ticked up slightly from 4.3% to 4.4%, still close to what the profession calls the natural rate, or what most people would simply call full employment. That's obviously not the best picture of the labor market. As always, the broader U6 measure gives a clearer picture of labor market slack (in my understan...