Job Growth DISCOVERED To Be Declining – Biggest Downward Revision In 15 Years

The U.S. government sharply revised downward its job growth figures over the past year. America now recognizes that it initially overstated employment last year by more than 800,000 jobs. The Bureau of Labor Statistics said Wednesday that job growth for the 12 months ending in March would be revised down by a total of 818,000 jobs. 

According to The Washington Examiner, this is the biggest downward revision in 15 years and amounts to nearly half a percent of total jobs.

That means the previously reported 242,000 average monthly job growth is now closer to about 174,000 for that period. The changes, still preliminary figures as part of an annual review process that reconciles and revises monthly data with more accurate but slower-to-arrive records from state governments, The New York Times wrote.

Ben Shapiro, host of The Daily Wire, called this the “best news to come out in years.” The number is “totally fake,” he said.

The new numbers are expected to become part of the official government data after they have been finalized next year. According to The Times, the revisions bring job numbers in line with other economic measures that have hinted that the rosy jobs reports of late are likely overstated — if not flat out misrepresented – how well off or poorly performing an economy we’ve had these past few years.

In comments made Tuesday shortly after the payroll report, Federal Reserve Board Governor Michelle Bowman told a virtual event: “Although we still have much more progress to make on these critical issues before achieving our goals,” there are also “risks that the labor market has not been as strong as the payroll data have been indicating.”

The smaller job gain could make Fed officials more likely to cut rates in July. A rate cut remains a potential weapon for Vice President Kamala Harris as she tries to appeal to Americans increasingly nervous about the economy.

As Wells Fargo economists Sarah House and Aubrey Woessner noted last week, a number largely lower than 200K would suggest the strength of hiring was waning before this past April. They also added that the change would highlight “the risks to the full employment half of Fed’s dual mandate given easing across a broad array of labor market data,” according to the New York Post.