Harris seeks to convert economic tailwinds into votes as election enters homestretch

• Vice President Kamala Harris enters the final month of the presidential campaign with a surprisingly strong jobs report and booming stock market behind her.
• Inflation has also come down and consumer sentiment is up.
• Donald Trump has been trying to paint a nightmarish picture of the U.S. economy to attack the Biden-Harris administration's record.

The surprisingly positive jobs report Friday has reinforced growing optimism about the U.S. economy, less than a month before the end of an extremely close presidential race between Vice President Kamala Harris and former President Donald Trump, and while voters say the economy is a top priority.

Nonfarm payrolls added 254,000 jobs in September, while the unemployment rate fell to 4.1%, down 0.1 percentage points. These numbers smashed expectations, with the Dow Jones consensus forecasting 150,000 additional jobs for the month.

"It was a very good report across every indicator in there," said Aaron Sojourner, a senior researcher at the W.E. Upjohn Institute for Employment Research. "Wage growth is strong. Working families are gaining purchasing power."

The good news comes in the final leg of a fiercely fought campaign, where the economy has been a major focal point.

As they barnstorm across battleground states, Harris and Trump paint dueling pictures of the U.S. labor market.

"This horrific nightmare for American workers ends the day I take the oath of office," Trump said at a rally in Michigan Oct. 3.

In stark contrast, Harris said in a CBS "60 Minutes" interview that aired Monday, "We now have an economy that is thriving by all macroeconomic measures." In particular, Harris cited "historic low unemployment in America among all groups of people."

The jobs report adds to a flurry