Revisions leave US jobs market on even thinner ice
Nick Rummell
MANHATTAN (CN) — The jobs market is struggling more than previously reported, with revisions to payroll data showing 911,000 fewer jobs were gained from March 2024 to March 2025.
The report, issued on Tuesday by the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, reflects a 0.6% decrease in the number of jobs thought gained in the 12 months period. The revision reportedly was the highest since 2002.
Experts had predicted a downward revision, though the number was at the higher end of forecasts. The new data put average monthly job gains for those 12 months at just 71,000 rather than the previously reported 147,000.
The largest revisions were among leisure and hospitality, which saw 15,000 fewer jobs than initially reported, and retail trade, which had 10,000 fewer jobs to speak of. Government employment was revised down by 31,000 jobs, while manufacturing lost an additional 95,000 jobs.
The only two sectors spared by downward revisions were warehousing and utilities, which gained 6,600 jobs and 3,700 jobs over the 12 months ending in March, respectively.
Bradley Saunders, North America economist for Capital Economics, wrote in an investor’s note that “the bulk of the downgrade appeared to be during the latter six months,” or October 2024 through March 2025.
The downward revisions again put the BLS in the political spotlight. Last week the agency shocked economists with a poor August employment report, and President Trump fired the agency’s previous lead statistician after July’s dismal jobs report showed huge downward revisions.
“These numbers are likely to anger President Trump and the White House,” wrote economists Elise Gould and Ben Zipperer at the Economic Policy Institute. They noted the revisions are “part of the regular, transparent process to update employment counts with the most comprehensive data possible” and are based on additional survey data from companies.
“Punishing the messenger will only further damage the federal data infrastructure and cloud our ability to understand the state of the economy,” they wrote.
Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent blamed the Biden administration for the losses, tweeting that “President Trump inherited a far worse economy than reported.”