Posted on 09/09/25
| News Source: WSJ
The pace of job growth was likely significantly weaker than reported from early 2024 through early this year, the Labor Department’s Bureau of Labor Statistics said Tuesday.
The U.S. added 911,000 fewer jobs over the 12 months that ended in March, the BLS said, trimming by a bit more than half the 1.79 million jobs the official data now show. If that holds, it would bring the average pace of seasonally adjusted employment gains from 147,000 jobs a month over the period to a bit over 70,000.
The leisure and hospitality sector, which includes businesses such as restaurants and hotels, likely had 176,000, or 1.1%, fewer jobs in March than the official data show, the BLS reported. Other sectors registering significantly fewer jobs included retailing, professional and business services, wholesale trade and manufacturing. In percentage terms, the information sector registered the biggest hit.
Tuesday’s report is just the preliminary part of an annual process in which the BLS updates the job figures from its monthly employer survey using more comprehensive data from state unemployment tax records. The official revision will come in February, and economists suspect it might not be quite as negative.
But the report, even though it is for a period that ended nearly a half year ago, could amplify worries that the job market, which has shown signs of significant weakening since March, started from a lower baseline than previously known. And it comes at a time when the BLS has come under fire from President Trump over the accuracy of its data.