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Thursday Night, Obama Will Know The Biggest Secret In The U.S. Economy

The number of jobs the economy gains (or loses) each month is most important number in the U.S. economy these days. As we reported recently, the government goes to crazy lengths to keep the number secret until its official release at 8:30 a.m. on the first Friday of the month.

But the number gets finalized a few days before it's released — and the President and a few close advisers typically learn what it is on Thursday afternoon

So when President Obama takes the stage at the Democratic convention on Thursday night, he'll be one of just a handful of people in the country who knows what Friday's jobs report will say.

The president "conceivably could tweak his adjectives in describing the economy if the employment report is a surprise in either direction," the WSJ's Sudeep Reddy writes. "Good luck trying to figure that out while you're watching."

Economists are predicting a gain of 125,000 jobs — a meh number that's enough to keep up with population growth but not enough to bring down unemployment.

Copyright 2020 NPR. To see more, visit https://www.npr.org.

Jacob Goldstein is an NPR correspondent and co-host of the Planet Money podcast. He is the author of the book Money: The True Story of a Made-Up Thing.
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