The United States added 911,000 fewer jobs than previously estimated in the year to March, showing weakness in the labour market extending through 2024.
The Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) revised its number of non-farm jobs created annually downward by 911,000, or 0.6%, for the month. These were the largest yearly revisions since 2002.
“The annual benchmark revisions over the last 10 years have an absolute average of 0.2% of total nonfarm employment,” according to the BLS.
The trade, transportation, and utilities sector saw the largest downward revisions, at a total of 226,000 or 0.8%. Retail trade and wholesale trade job additions were revised down by 126,200 and 110,300, respectively.
The transportation & warehousing and utilities industries were the only two areas to post a net increase in created jobs from initial estimates, and were revised upward by 6,600 and 3,700.
The leisure and hospitality sector also reported a major revision, adding 176,000 fewer jobs than first estimated. The information sector’s revisions represented the largest percentage decrease, falling by 67,000 jobs or 2.3%.
Jobs added in the U.S. were revised down by a total of 21,000 across June and July in August’s BLS report, released this week. The U.S. created 22,000 new non-farm jobs in August.
U.S. President Donald Trump fired BLS Commissioner Erika McEntarfer last month following a major slowdown in growth, claiming the BLS had “rigged” downward revisions to damage his administration. Most of the annual job creation to March took place before Trump was inaugurated in January.
Trump has nominated Heritage Foundation economist E.J. Antoni to replace McEntarfer, though he has yet to be confirmed.
White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt claimed that today’s revisions indicated “the BLS is broken” and called for an interest rate cut.
The Federal Reserve will meet next week to consider a rate cut, with markets largely expecting a cut of 0.25%. Fed Chair Jerome Powell said last month that risks to the softening labour market would play a major role in the central bank’s decision.
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