President Trump’s economic narrative was jolted Tuesday when the Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) revealed that the U.S. economy added 911,000 fewer jobs over the 12 months ending in March than first reported. The adjustment, based on more accurate payroll data, represents the largest revision in the agency’s history and underscores the fragility of recent job growth figures.
The BLS explained that initial monthly reports are built from surveys and often require revisions as more comprehensive data becomes available. This latest re-benchmarking, grounded in the Quarterly Census of Employment and Wages, showed nearly a 1 million overcount in jobs reported during 2024. Economists had braced for a downgrade in the range of 500,000 to 1 million jobs, but the sheer scale of the revision shocked markets and added fuel to the administration’s already tense relationship with the agency.
The revelation comes amid heightened scrutiny of the BLS after Trump fired its commissioner, Erika McEntarfer, accusing her without evidence of manipulating data to damage him politically. The White House quickly seized on the revision to justify the shakeup. Press secretary Karoline Leavitt said the findings confirmed Trump’s claims that the agency was “broken,” insisting the new numbers highlight the failures of Biden’s economy before Trump’s return to office. She added that Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell had “run out of excuses” and must move to cut interest rates aggressively.
Critics, however, argue that Trump’s attacks on the BLS threaten the credibility of a key independent agency relied upon by businesses, policymakers, and financial markets. Economists from the Economic Policy Institute stressed that most of the revised figures come from 2024, during Biden’s presidency, meaning they say little about the current state of Trump’s economy. Still, the revisions land at a sensitive moment: Friday’s jobs report already showed a dismal gain of just 29,000 jobs in August, compounding concerns about a slowing labor market.
Experts warn the steep downgrade could pressure the Fed to act decisively at its September meeting, potentially even delivering a larger-than-usual rate cut to stabilize growth. Samuel Tombs of Pantheon Macroeconomics noted that while Trump will likely leverage the revisions to argue both that Biden’s record was worse than believed and that the Fed is dragging its feet, the immediate picture is of a labor market facing mounting strain.
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