It's Jobs Friday! It's that time of the month where we check in on the American worker. In September, 254,000 jobs were added to the US economy and the unemployment rate ticked down very slightly to 4.1%. It's unexpectedly strong, and relieving news for workers after a pretty lackluster summer. But ... given how the labor market cooled over summer, is the labor market still on thin ice? And if there were to be a plummet in jobs, could anything be done to speed up the recovery? Today on the show: How it's easier to break the economy than to fix it, and whether we can escape from the patterns of the past. Related Episodes: The Sahm Rule With The Eponymous EconomistHow much would you do this job for? And other indicators For sponsor-free episodes of The Indicator from Planet Money, subscribe to Planet Money+ via Apple Podcasts or at plus.npr.org. Music by Drop Electric. Find us: TikTok, Instagram, Facebook, Newsletter. Learn more about sponsor message choices: podcastchoices.com/adchoices NPR Privacy Policy

TikTok could begin shutting down in the U.S. as soon as January 19 of next year. But the app is not going down without a fight. The company is asking a panel of federal judges to block the law in a high-profile case that pits free speech versus national security. Today on the show, how TikTok got to this point and what we can expect from the app's last ditch effort to stay alive in the U.S. Related episodes:Tick tock for TikTok? (Apple / Spotify) Is Project Texas enough to save TikTok? (Apple / Spotify) For sponsor-free episodes of The Indicator from Planet Money, subscribe to Planet Money+ via Apple Podcasts or at plus.npr.org. Learn more about sponsor message choices: podcastchoices.com/adchoices NPR Privacy Policy