The News
Some 818,000 fewer new jobs were created in the US in the year leading up to March than originally reported, the Bureau of Labor Statistics said Wednesday. The 28% decrease marks the largest downward revision for non-farm payroll numbers since 2009, Bloomberg reported.
Non-farm payroll represents the total US labor market, excluding farm workers and a few other specific groups, and it is a key indicator as to the health of the economy.
The report comes ahead of the US Federal Reserve’s meeting in September, where it is expected to lower interest rates. The new numbers could add to the concern among some analysts that the Fed has waited too long to cut rates and is hurting the job market by keeping borrowing costs high and employers in cost cutting mode.
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The Labor Department regularly updates its jobs estimates in the months after its initial reports as new data becomes available. Wednesday’s revision was updated to reflect state and local unemployment tax records, which are more accurate but slower to report than previous sources. It will provide final numbers for the year leading up to March in Feb. 2025.
In the last year, officials have revised the estimates down more often than up, which suggests the labor market is far weaker than originally thought.