Forget about political polling data. Ignore the latest primary results.

The most important political and economic barometer this election year is released every first Friday of the month.

The jobs market will dictate the tone of the election cycle, from the White House and Capitol Hill to statehouses and City Halls.

Each monthly update on national unemployment will have firepower for both Republicans and Democrats.

If Friday’s report on the January jobs market continues with the trend over the past 15 months, we will see news of more Americans finding jobs. That’s encouraging.

Narrowed to only private sector jobs, employment likely has been growing for almost two years. There are more than three million more jobs in the United States today compared with the beginning of 2010. Guess which party will be trumpeting these statistics.

But those three million jobs are only half the number of jobs lost in the Great Recession.

Four of every 10 unemployed Americans have gone without a paying job for at least six months. And the lowest percentage of working age Americans are even in the labor market since the mid-1980s. This provides plenty of campaign ammunition for the other side of the aisle.

The jobs report itself is apolitical.

Its most important constituency is the economy, and all those hoping to participate in prosperity, regardless of the political rhetoric.

Tom Hudson is anchor and managing editor of Nightly Business Report , produced by NBR Worldwide and distributed nationally by PBS. In South Florida, the show is broadcast at 7 p.m. weekdays on Channel 2. Follow him on Twitter, @HudsonNBR.