Kamala Harris’ economic pitch just got a lot more complicated

The Biden-Harris administration couldn’t shake the “vibecession” even when the economy was on a tear. It may be even harder now that cracks are forming in the labor market.

The Biden-Harris administration couldn’t shake the “vibecession” even when the economy was on a tear. It may be even harder now that cracks are forming in the labor market. Americans have been grumpy about the economy for the better part of three years because prices have gone up, and — fairly or unfairly — many consumers have blamed the White House. Now, inflation is more or less under control, but that’s also come at a cost: The job market, while still historically strong, is starting to weaken. Last month, the economy gained just 114,000 jobs, and unemployment rose to 4.3% from 4.1%, largely because of an influx of job seekers re-entering the workforce. It was hardly a disastrous jobs report, but it was a surprisingly abrupt shift from June, when the economy added 179,000, and May, when it added 216,000. The jobs report was not a disaster, by any stretch, and it’s no guarantee of a looming recession. But it was a surprise, and economists expressed concerns about how quickly the labor market appears to have downshifted. “We don’t know just how precipitously the labor market is softening, but it seems pretty darn clear that it is softening,” said Heidi Shierholz, president of the Economic Policy Institute, a left-leaning think tank. One month isn’t enough to declare a trend, but it’s enough to seriously complicate Vice President Kamala Harris’ economic pitch as the new presumptive Democratic nominee.