First, a little part of a piece from Cafe Hayek:

The August job numbers will be released Friday morning. If the payroll survey shows that over 100,000 jobs were added in August, then Bush will be able to say that the economy is still on track and it will be very hard for Kerry to make any political hay on the economy. If job growth is much smaller than 100,000, then Kerry will be able to say that Bush has mismanaged the economy. Anything over 200,000 is a home run for a Bush. Anything less than 50,000 (or a drop) will be a big help for Kerry.

Russell Roberts goes on to show how these one month numbers are largely irrelevant in the process of trying to work out the job performance of one man, the President.
Then, from the EPI, this morning’s reaction to the actual figures. (After I’ve soundly trashed them in two TCS pieces they appear to want to provide me with their “non-partisan” offerings via email):

JobWatch.org reports modest job growth in August with the creation of 144,000 jobs, following the weak growth reported for July (73,000 jobs) and June (96,000). “This modest job growth is certainly better than the steady 100,000 per month decline we saw up to last summer, but it is barely enough to absorb a growing population’s need for jobs,” said Lawrence Mishel, president of the Economic Policy Institute.

Uh Huh, non-partisan. Riiiiight.