From Holden:

Jeebus! The Bush Economy created only 56,000 new jobs last month while September’s numbers were revised downwards by 43,000 jobs and August’s numbers were also revised downwards, by a whopping 63,000 jobs. When is it exactly that I should expect those tax cuts for the rich to kick in?

A smaller-than-expected 56,000 new U.S. jobs were created in October despite the fading impact of hurricane Katrina, while total job growth over the two prior months was revised lower, a Labor Department report on Friday showed.

[snip]

Wall Street economists had forecast that 100,000 jobs would be created last month and the unemployment rate would be unchanged.

The department revised its figures for August and September. It said that 148,000 jobs were created in August instead of 211,000 that it previously thought and that 8,000 jobs were lost in September instead of 35,000. As a result, the data shows 36,000 fewer jobs were created over the two months than the department previously estimated.

Bureau of Labor Statistics Commissioner Kathleen Utgoff said the relatively weak increase in jobs last month could not be blamed on Hurricane Katrina, the storm that devastated the Gulf Coast region in late August. “Rather, job growth in the remainder of the country appeared to be below trend in October,” Utgoff said.