The U.S. economy isn’t quite as healthy as we have been led to believe.
Despite President Joe Biden’s adamant and angry insistence that his economic policies are working, they’re not.
The U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics on Wednesday revised downward its initial assessment of how many jobs were added in 2023 by 818,000 — the biggest revision in 15 years. And the story isn’t over, as the numbers will not be finalized until February, when a new president will be sitting in the Oval Office.
The New York Times called the revision “unusually large” and noted that in the last 10 years, the Bureau’s annual update had added or subtracted only about 173,000 jobs on average to the total. The latest number is 373% higher than that average.
Former President Donald Trump was quick to blame Biden and Vice President Kamala Harris for the significant discrepancy, posting on Truth Social:
“MASSIVE SCANDAL! The Harris-Biden Administration has been caught fraudulently manipulating Job Statistics to hide the true extent of the Economic Ruin they have inflicted upon America. New Data from the Bureau of Labor Statistics shows that the Administration PADDED THE NUMBERS with an extra 818,000 Jobs that DO NOT EXIST, AND NEVER DID. The real Numbers are much worse than that and, if Comrade Kamala gets another four years, millions more Jobs will VANISH overnight, and Inflation will completely destroy our Country. YOUR LIFE SAVINGS WILL BE WIPED OUT. With a TRUMP VICTORY, we will once again have the Greatest Economy in History. MAGA2024!”
The New York Post reports on the biggest job market markdown since 2009 and what it might mean for the economy. Here’s the start of the story:
The US economy wasn’t as hot as it seemed between early this year and early 2023, according to revised figures released by the feds.
The nation’s labor market likely created 818,000 fewer jobs during the 12 months ended in March — the largest preliminary downward revision to US payroll figures since 2009, the US Bureau of Labor Statistics said Wednesday.
That means that the reported job growth during that period — 2.9 million non-farm payroll positions amounting to 242,000 jobs per month — was likely around 30% less, or 174,000 jobs per month, according to new data gathered from state unemployment tax records.
The massive markdown — short of the 1 million downward revision some economists had feared, but well beyond more optimistic forecasts of 300,000 — fuels concerns that the Federal Reserve has waited too long to start cutting interest rates.
“This doesn’t challenge the idea we’re still in an expansion, but it does signal we should expect monthly job growth to be more muted and put extra pressure on the Fed to cut rates,” Robert Frick, corporate economist with the Navy Federal Credit Union, said in a note.