Unemployment Seen Rising in Last Pre-Election Jobs Report

NEW YORK (TheStreet) -- Friday, the Labor Department is expected to report the U.S. economy added 125,000 jobs in October and unemployment increased to 7.9%.

Hurricane Sandy should little affect these estimates as employer and household surveys were conducted earlier in October. Going forward, the hurricane will depress employment but only until the rebuilding begins in earnest.

Rebuilding will raise employment and incomes later in 2013, but not enough to substantially alter the national economic picture.

If President Obama is reelected and delivers on campaign promises, the jobs picture will worsen.

Since peaking at 10% in October 2009, the jobless rate has fallen mostly because six million adults have chosen not to look for work. But for this phenomenon, the unemployment rate would still be 9.7%.

More than eight million part-time workers would like full-time work but can't find it. Adding in those folks, the unemployment rate is 14.7%.

In 2007, the last year before the financial collapse, the deficit was $161 billion with the Bush tax cuts in place, wars in Iraq and Afghanistan and new Medicare prescription drug coverage.

Over the last four years, the deficit has averaged $1.3 trillion. Additional tax cuts, such as the $95 billion payroll tax holiday, subsidies for green energy and electric cars, and social and regulatory programs, promoted by President Obama, caused this red ink.

Even with huge stimulus, convincing millions they don't want a job and compelling desperate workers to settle for part-time work has been the Obama Administration's most effective jobs program.

Though Congress may avoid sequestration, some temporary tax cuts, such as reduced Social Security taxes and elements of the Bush tax cuts benefiting high-income families, will likely lapse and some combination of savings in entitlements and defense spending will be accomplished. Overall, these would lower the deficit in the range of $300 billion.

If reelected, President Obama promises additional stimulus -- aid to state budgets under the guise of teacher retention, infrastructure projects and more subsidies for alternative energy projects.

When the dust settles, the deficit should be unchanged. However, the tax increases will come quickly but the additional spending will arrive with considerable lag. As take-home pay is slashed and consumer spending slows, the economy easily could be thrown into a second, deep recession -- double-digit unemployment by any measure.

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