Nearly 1,400 people were laid off Wednesday from what had been the Navistar truck factory in southwestern Ohio, the Associated Press reported.
The big picture: The cuts were large enough to erase an entire year of job growth across the greater Dayton area, and they landed three days before President Trump’s Saturday rally at a nearby high school.
- Kyle Bos, 30, a United Auto Workers member with two daughters and a third due in January, said he plans to spend the weeks before the election canvassing for Democrats. He has voted for Trump three times.
- "Something has to change politically in this country," said Bos, who describes himself as a centrist. "Seems like it just kept getting worse and worse and worse."
The backstory: Dayton has shed about half of its 90,000 factory jobs since 1990, AP reported, first as the North American Free Trade Agreement moved work to Mexico and then faster after China joined the World Trade Organization.
The other side: Trump is running a 32-day marathon of rallies arguing the economy is stronger than voters believe. "All over the country, they’re building factories, plants, manufacturing’s coming back," he said Thursday at a Texas truck plant. "The only thing we’re doing badly at is public relations."
- Just 17% of Americans approve of his handling of the cost of living, per AP. Bos called the president’s proposed $5,000 checks "a bribe, a slap in the face."
What's next: An Ohio Senate race could decide control of the chamber: Republican Senator Jon Husted faces former Democratic Senator Sherrod Brown, who is campaigning on exactly this disenchantment.
Why it matters: September payrolls grew just 29,000 nationally, and one plant closing wiped out a mid-sized metro’s annual gains. That is what a slowing labor market looks like at ground level, and it is landing in the states that decide the Senate.
