Trump Calls a Routine Revision of Job Numbers a ‘Lie’

Each year, the Bureau of Labor Statistics revises its monthly employment figures, which come from a survey of employers, based on more comprehensive data it obtains later from state filings. But former President Donald Trump called this year’s revision a “total lie,” baselessly claiming that “the Harris/Biden administration has been caught fraudulently manipulating job statistics.”

There’s no evidence for such claims, and the Trump campaign hasn’t provided any.

The BLS, nonpartisan number-crunchers who publish a wealth of statistics on employment, wages, inflation and more, announced on Aug. 21 a preliminary estimate that the number of jobs created over the 12 months ending in March would likely be adjusted downward — 818,000 lower than the original estimate of 2.9 million jobs. That’s an adjustment of -0.5% to the March level of employment, larger than the average revision over the last 10 years of plus or minus 0.1%, the BLS said. The final estimate will be issued in February 2025, when the January employment report is released. That’s when the final revisions have been issued each year dating back to 2004.