The US created 911k fewer jobs than previously reported

Labor Market Revisions - The Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) revised the nation's job growth downward by 911,000 for the 12 months ending in March [1] - This revision indicates that job growth from March 2024 to March 2025 was significantly slower than previously estimated, suggesting a weaker labor market [4] - Revisions, particularly in recent months, have been larger than historically observed, making forecasting more difficult [10][11] Impact on Federal Reserve (The Fed) - The revisions, valid as of March, suggest that job growth in the second half of 2024 and early 2025 was not as strong as the Fed believed [6][7] - This may indicate that interest rates are too high, potentially requiring the Fed to consider rate cuts to support the labor market [7] - Timely monthly employment data is crucial for the Fed, economists, and businesses [8][12][13] Data Integrity and BLS Funding - The BLS incorporates unemployment insurance data to benchmark employment data and ensure accuracy [3][8] - The BLS faces challenges with response rates to surveys, impacting the reliability of current figures [9] - Increased funding for the BLS is needed to improve data collection methods, response rates, and the speed of incorporating unemployment insurance data [13] Economic Outlook - The labor market was very strong in 2023, with slower job growth in 2024, and a further slowdown in 2025, with recent months adding only 20,000-40,000 jobs per month [9] - A 03% increase in both core and overall CPI is expected for August, with inflation potentially rising due to businesses passing higher tariff costs to customers [14]