Jobless claims drop 5,000 to 210,000 in mid-October, stick near 50-year low

“The number of Americans losing their jobs and applying for unemployment benefits each week remained near a 49-year low in mid-October,” Jeffry Bartash reports for MarketWatch. “It can’t get a whole lot better in the U.S. job market. Openings just hit a record high, the U.S. unemployment rate has fallen to a 48-year low of 3.7% and hiring remains robust.”

The strong demand for American labor is pushing up wages and benefits, as well, fueling the longest economic expansion in U.S. history, Bartash adds.

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As another Central American caravan heads for the U.S. border, Ana Quintana explains the significance in The Daily Signal. “The problem here is not a lack of compassion for these people, but rather, the dangerous precedent created by allowing a massive caravan to arrive at the U.S.’s southern border.” The bottom line: “The U.S. immigration system is already stretched beyond capacity and must prioritize those who apply for asylum in good faith.”

“One of the core promises that swept President Donald Trump into office was that he would renegotiate better deals for the United States with our traditional trading partners,” Secretary of Agriculture Sonny Perdue writes in The Spokesman-Review. “To strike the best deals possible for the United States, the president has shown that he is willing to walk away from the bargaining table if he feels our country is being unfairly treated.” The results speak for themselves, as evidenced by the newly minted United States-Mexico-Canada Agreement that will replace NAFTA.

“Some Democrats are trying furiously to push back against a New York Times article reporting what’s been patently clear for years to any honest observer: The party is abandoning its support of Israel,” the New York Post editorial board writes. “Even still-pro-Israel elected Democrats can sniff their party’s political winds — so don’t expect them to stay pro-Israel much longer.”