Can we make Social Security better for blue-collar workers?

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• 00:02

  This is The Indicator from Planet Money.

• 00:07

  I'm Adrienne Ma.

• 00:08

  And I'm Waylon Wong.

• 00:10

  And it is Jobs Friday, the day of the month where we check the latest jobs numbers

• 00:14

  and spotlight trends in the labor market.

• 00:16

  That's right.

• 00:17

  And according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics,

• 00:19

  the unemployment rate in September ticked up a tenth of a percentage point to 4.2.

• 00:24

  So not much of a change there.

• 00:26

  And the economy added 29,000 jobs.

• 00:29

  Also, the numbers for July and August were revised downward.

• 00:32

  So July actually turned from positive to negative with minus 10,000 jobs.

• 00:38

  Meanwhile, the rate of annual wage growth has continued to slow down.

• 00:41

  It was 3% in September.

• 00:43

  Compare that to inflation, which is around 3.4%.

• 00:46

  So while the job market is kind of moving sideways, people's pay is not keeping up with rising costs.

• 00:52

  So those are the headline numbers.

• 00:54

  Now let's turn to the focus of today's episode.

• 00:58

  On Jobs Friday, we talk a lot about the labor force.

• 01:01

  But today, we're going to talk about retirement.

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