New jobs numbers for October came in today, revealing 171,000 jobs were added in October. That number was dampened by the fact that the unemployment number increased by 170,000.

The 170,000 increase translated into the nation’s unemployment rate inching up one-tenth of a percent to 7.9-percent.

Indiana Senator Dan Coats says he was not surprised by the October jobs report, “there’s this dark cloud of uncertainty over business owners, in terms of what their tax rates are going to be, what their health care obligations are going to be, what our economy is going to look like.”

Senator Coats came to town to talk to the Elkhart Chamber of commerce about business. He says business owners from across the states are uncertain. Because of that uncertainty Coats says, “They’re holding back on expanding buying the plant, buying new equipment, and hiring more people.”

Next week’s election promises to alleviate some of that uncertainty for Indiana voters. Senator Dan Coats is not up for reelection until 2017.