US employment falls by 911,000 in government revision, revealing weakerthanreported jobs market Ben WerschkulSeptember 9, 2025 at 11:18 AM 35 The US economy employed 911,000 fewer people than originally reported as of March 2025, providing stark new evidence that the labor market was downshifting lo...
- - US employment falls by 911,000 in government revision, revealing weaker-than-reported jobs market
Ben WerschkulSeptember 9, 2025 at 11:18 AM
35
The US economy employed 911,000 fewer people than originally reported as of March 2025, providing stark new evidence that the labor market was downshifting long before this summer.
The data covers the period from April 2024 to March 2025 and trims the average monthly jobs gains seen during this period (roughly the last 10 months of Joe Biden's presidency and the first two months of Trump's) from a monthly average of 147,000 to about 71,000.
Data had previously suggested the economy added about 1.76 million jobs in that 12-month span.
The new total is less than half that, marking another larger-than-average downward revision that immediately provided fuel for critics of the government's data collection process.
The White House and allies of President Trump quickly seized upon the revisions as showing that the president inherited a weaker economy than previously thought and that, as Vice President JD Vance put it, "It's difficult to overstate how useless BLS data had become."
The revisions also increased political pressure on Jerome Powell, with White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt saying the central banker "has officially run out of excuses and must cut the rates now."
These job revisions are evidence that job growth was "not as strong as the Fed thought," added PNC Financial Services Group chief economist Gus Faucher on Yahoo Finance, adding it was evidence that interest rates are currently too high and "the Fed may need to cut interest rates in the near term in order to support the labor market."
A hiring sign is displayed is seen in June in Austin, Texas. (Brandon Bell/Getty Images) (Brandon Bell via Getty Images)
The report showed that the largest downward revisions were in leisure and hospitality, which saw 176,000 fewer jobs than previously thought. The professional and business services industry was second, with a downward revision of 158,000 jobs.
The revisions are almost entirely in the private sector, showing 880,000 fewer jobs there, as well as 31,000 fewer government jobs.
The backward-facing data also came in well above the expectations of many economists, who had estimated that these revisions would be hundreds of thousands of jobs lower.
A final revised number for this period is not set to be released until February 2026.
A transition to harder sources of jobs data
Jobs revisions are a routine practice in which the Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) and other government agencies update their estimates of job levels as more concrete data sources — such as quarterly insurance tax filings — become available.
The revisions unveiled Tuesday are an adjustment to previous estimates that were largely based on surveys.
But job revisions have been consistently above average in recent years as response rates to surveys have declined and have also become a political flash point.
This has been especially true since last year's preliminary annual revisions landed in the middle of the presidential campaign and showed the US economy employed 818,000 fewer people than previously thought.
And the political heat has only increased in recent months after Trump reacted to a monthly jobs report by accusing the BLS, without evidence, of having "phony" numbers and then firing the agency's commissioner.
President Trump speaks at the Museum of the Bible on Sept. 8 in Washington, D.C. Trump addressed the White House Religious Liberties Commission during the event. (Win McNamee/Getty Images) (Win McNamee via Getty Images)
Trump's pick for a new BLS commissioner, E.J. Antoni of the Heritage Foundation, is expected to have a confirmation hearing before the Senate's labor-focused panel in the coming months.
Antoni has proved to be a polarizing pick as Trump aims to put one of the agency's fiercest critics in charge of data collection going forward. Both Antoni and various Trump aides have seized upon larger-than-normal revisions seen in recent years to argue that new approaches to data are needed, especially a rethinking of surveys.
Tuesday's release is likely to increase those calls.
The data is also being used as fodder by the White House to try to shift blame for the current slowdown toward Biden or Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell, whom Trump for months has said is "too late."
Trump has repeatedly lobbed the "too late" charge, including Tuesday morning in a social media post before the number was released.
The president quoted a market analyst who said Powell should have begun cuts in 2021 and that the 2% inflation target is "too rigid."
This story has been with additional developments.
Ben Werschkul is a Washington correspondent for Yahoo Finance.
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