Donald Trump has called revised jobs data released on Wednesday a “massive scandal” after it was revealed the US economy created 818,000 fewer jobs over the past year than originally reported.
The Bureau of Labor Statistics said job growth figures for the 12 months through March were actually 30 percent lower than its initial figure of 2.9 million.
The update, which is based on a more detailed quarterly source, was the largest downward revision since 2009.
The figures suggest the labour market began to cool earlier than originally thought.
Trump accused the Biden-Harris administration of having been “caught fraudulently manipulating labor statistics to hide the true extent of the economic ruin they have inflicted on the United States.”
The U.S. economy created 818,000 fewer jobs than originally reported in the year to March 2024, according to revised data from the Bureau of Labor Statistics released today.
Former President Donald Trump has called revised jobs data released today a “massive scandal” (speaking at a campaign event in North Carolina)
Writing on his social media site Truth Social, he claimed the data shows the administration “inflated the numbers by an additional 818,000 jobs that do not exist and never existed.”
He added that if Kamala Harris wins the election, “millions more jobs will disappear overnight and inflation will completely destroy our country.”
The former president also repeated his accusations during a campaign rally in North Carolina on Wednesday.
Employment data are revised every year, and these figures are not final, which will be published early next year.
Concerns about a slowing labor market sparked a market sell-off earlier this month amid fears the U.S. economy is heading toward a recession.
US job growth fell short of expectations in July and the unemployment rate jumped to the highest level in nearly three years.
Employers added 114,000 jobs last month, well below the Dow Jones estimate of 185,000.
The unemployment rate also rose to 4.3 percent, the highest level since October 2021.
“We knew that when there was a delay the numbers weren’t going to be good,” said Rob Wilson, president of Employco USA, an employment solutions company.
“This is a huge mistake by the Department of Labor,” said Rob Wilson, president of Employco USA, an employment solutions company.
‘That this should happen during an election year is particularly outrageous.
“We will never know to what extent these inaccurate numbers impacted the election, but it is deeply troubling to know that false data influenced Americans’ voting decisions,” he added.
Other economists said the revisions were not a “shock” given that some of the estimates pointed to a bigger decline.
Goldman Sachs economists said they expected job growth for the year to be at least 600,000 weaker than estimates, and the decline could be as much as 1 million.
Prior to the report, initial figures indicated an average of about 242,000 jobs added per month during the year to March 2024.
The monthly pace is now more likely to be around 174,000, which is still considered a healthy rate of hiring. Bloomberg reported.
Jerome Powell will take the revised figures into account when he speaks at the Federal Reserve’s annual symposium in Jackson Hole, Wyoming, on Friday.
Unemployment rose to 4.3 percent in July, the highest level in almost three years
The Federal Reserve kept interest rates between 5.25 and 5.5 percent at its last meeting
“The revisions are not a surprise, given that estimates were for a million fewer jobs,” Robert Frick, corporate economist at Navy Federal Credit Union, said in a note.
“This doesn’t call into question the idea that we’re still in an expansion, but it does indicate that we should expect monthly job growth to moderate and put additional pressure on the Fed to cut rates.”
Markets rose slightly after the data was released, as it reinforced forecasts that the Federal Reserve will likely begin cutting interest rates next month.
Traders now expect a quarter-point cut in September, which would take benchmark interest rates down from the 23-year high they have been at since July 2023.
Federal Reserve Chairman Jerome Powell will take the revised figures into account when he speaks at the annual symposium in Jackson Hole, Wyoming, on Friday.
At its latest meeting, the central bank said it is focusing more on the jobs aspect of its dual mandate, which also includes bringing the annual inflation rate down to its 2 percent target.