About 911,000 fewer jobs were created throughout the U.S. from April 2024 through March 2025 than previously thought, the Bureau of Labor Statistics announced Tuesday.
That amounts to around 76,000 fewer jobs per month, or 0.6% of overall employment during the 12-month period.
Twice every year, the BLS updates its monthly job reports with more concrete data from tax reports. This year’s preliminary update is the largest downward edit in at least two decades.
The bureau gets its monthly data from wide-ranging company surveys, which allow it to publish monthly job reports that often affect the stock market.
But it also takes data from the Quarterly Census of Employment and Wages, which includes tax and unemployment records. This data is more accurate but processed more slowly, leading to the biannual revisions. The final update for the April 2024 through March 2025 period will arrive in February 2026.
Tuesday’s update implies the American economy is on shakier ground than previously thought, especially given limited job growth in June, July and August.
Those uninspiring numbers resulted in the BLS landing in President Trump’s crosshairs. He fired agency leader Erika McEntarfer on Aug. 1 on the heels of a worse than expected July job report.
Trump followed that by nominating E.J. Antoni, chief economist at the conservative think-tank The Heritage Foundation, to lead the BLS. Antoni has said he wants to get rid of the monthly job reports and only release data every quarter.
