Labor Department Revises Past Year's Job Growth Down by 911,000

The US economy added fewer jobs over the last year than previously reported, according to a preliminary Labor Department estimate on Tuesday from April 2024 through March 2025.

The Details: The Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) report revised initial estimates to show the US added 911,000 fewer jobs to nonfarm payrolls than it had originally reported for last year. Wall Street analysts had predicted the revisions would be somewhere between 600,000 and 1 million fewer jobs, making Tuesday’s estimate near the high end of that range. The revisions were over 50% higher than last year’s adjustment, and the largest on record going back to 2002.

For Context: Last week, the Bureau of Labor Statistics announced that the economy added 22,000 jobs in August while the number of unemployed Americans surpassed available job openings for the first time since 2021. The report also said the unemployment rate reached 4.3%. In August, President Trump fired BLS commissioner Erika McEntarfer after claiming the July jobs report was “rigged” in a Truth Social post. 

How the Media Covered It: Quartz (Center bias) said the revision “intensifies the sense of stagflation” the US economy is experiencing. It mentioned Trump’s recent actions against the BLS, and said the report comes during “weakening confidence among workers.” Fox Business (Lean Right) said the report reflects how much monthly job reports “overstated or understated” job growth since April 2024. It listed sectors experiencing job loss, including manufacturing, the hospitality sector, retail trade, and wholesale trade. CNBC (Lean Left) noted most of the data collection is before Trump took office. It said the revisions “also bring added heat to the BLS” amid backlash from the White House on its data collection methods and results.

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