Getting this kind of news wasn’t a good way to start the day. Not only did the jobs report come in at a very low 69,000 new jobs added in May, but the previous lousy month of April was adjusted down from 115,000 to 77,000, making it even lousier. Unemployment ticked up from 8.1% to 8.2% and, as has been true for months, that number should be considered even worse because many people have become officially “discouraged” and are not being counted towards being unemployed.

Here’s the graph, with the magic number(s) proposed by Nate Silver and Ezra Klein:

As you can see the current trajectory of the last three months puts the jobs growth under even the “super optimistic” line that Nate Silver proposed last month.

With the GOP House refusing to allow any jobs-creation legislation to get passed, there’s not a lot that can be done by the president before the election to change these numbers, and so we can probably expect a grumpy electorate in November. It’s almost like Republicans planned it this way.

Previous jobs report post here.