In a revelation that upends recent economic narratives, the Bureau of Labor Statistics has disclosed a massive downward revision to job growth figures.
Breitbart reported that this adjustment indicates the U.S. economy created nearly a million fewer jobs in the year through March 2025 than initially reported, marking the largest such revision ever and halving the perceived pace of employment gains.
The preliminary figures, released by the BLS on Tuesday, show payrolls likely revised down by 911,000 jobs, or 0.6%. This change drops total employment gains for those 12 months to about 850,000, far below the 1.8 million originally stated.
On a seasonally adjusted basis, average monthly job growth falls from around 147,000 to just over 70,000. The downward shift affects nearly every industry and most states, with wholesale and retail trade leading the shortfall.
Leisure and hospitality, professional and business services, and manufacturing follow closely in the reductions.
Information employment saw the sharpest percentage drop, revised down by more than 2%. As President Donald Trump begins his second term, this revision redefines the inherited economic landscape. Far from a booming labor market, the data reveal a weaker foundation than previously understood.
What was once hailed as a historically strong job market now looks considerably less impressive. Analysts had suggested voters overlooked plentiful jobs to focus on inflation. But the new figures imply they detected real weaknesses hidden by overstated statistics.
In June 2024, White House economic adviser Jared Bernstein told The New York Times, “It’s beyond question that this is one of the strongest labor markets that we’ve ever seen.” Yet this revision politely suggests such claims might have been a bit premature, overlooking the inflated numbers that masked a slower reality.
The adjustment also spotlights potential missteps by the Federal Reserve in late 2024. The central bank cut interest rates three times between September and December but has held steady since Trump assumed office.
Recent months show job growth slowing sharply, and the revisions confirm it was already weaker beforehand, indicating the Fed may have lagged behind economic signals.
With unemployment climbing to 4.3% in August—the highest in nearly four years—the argument for additional rate reductions grows stronger.
Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell said in December, “the U.S. economy has just been remarkable… performing very, very well.” In hindsight, this optimism seems to have rested on shaky data, as the revisions paint a picture of an economy needing more careful calibration than celebrated at the time.
Tuesday's announcement is the second major benchmark revision in succession. In February, the BLS cut its job growth estimate through March 2024 by nearly 600,000.
The latest revision, set for finalization in February 2026, emphasizes that prior overstatements were not isolated but part of a recurring issue with initial payroll reports.
Some economists anticipate the final numbers may not dip as deeply as the preliminary 911,000, similar to last year's pattern, where the initial estimate was 818,000 fewer jobs. These adjustments have heightened examination of the Bureau of Labor Statistics.
Last month, President Trump removed the agency's Senate-confirmed commissioner, Erika McEntarfer, pointing to the repeated large revisions. He has put forward economist E.J. Antoni, a consistent critic of the bureau's approaches, as her replacement.
While the revision does not alter data after March 2025, paired with recent weak reports—like only 22,000 jobs added in August—it depicts a labor market declining more rapidly from an already diminished base than expected.
