Is the Biden Administration Overstating Jobs Numbers?

Some media outlets and pundits across the spectrum have expressed skepticism that the Biden administration is “overstating” jobs numbers in its May report.

Overstated Jobs Report: ZeroHedge (Lean Right bias) published an opinion that said that while the Establishment Survey claimed the U.S. added 272,000 payrolls, the actual number of employed workers fell by 408,000 according to the Household Survey. ZeroHedge noted that while speaking to a Bloomberg (Lean Left bias) reporter the other day, Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell said, “There is an argument that [payrolls] may be a bit overstated.”

Unusual Divergence: Liz Peek (Lean Right bias), writing for The Hill (Center bias), noted the same figures as ZeroHedge and Powell’s comment as well. She said the two surveys don’t always move in lockstep, but they are normally somewhat compatible,” and called divergence on the May report “unusual.” Peek concluded that the report will likely be revised, and criticized the Biden administration for lying “constantly and comfortably” about the economy with figures such as inflation.

Underlying Weakness: An analysis from Bloomberg noted that the 272,000 payrolls added were “far ahead of the 180,000 that economists had expected,” but that the 408,000 loss in jobs “is a harbinger of what’s ahead.” Bloomberg cited other metrics like job openings and consumer spending as underlying bellwethers of economic weakness in the U.S. and concluded that recent overall jobs growth “may have been overstated.”