First came a sluggish jobs report showing only 22,000 new hires last week. Now, the Bureau of Labor Statistics has revised previous reports to reflect that the nation had 911,000 fewer jobs in March 2025 than it initially tallied, a reminder that early job numbers are just the first draft of the story. The unemployment […]
Menej ako 1 min. min.
First came a sluggish jobs report showing only 22,000 new hires last week. Now, the Bureau of Labor Statistics has revised previous reports to reflect that the nation had 911,000 fewer jobs in March 2025 than it initially tallied, a reminder that early job numbers are just the first draft of the story.
The unemployment rate has stayed at 4.8%, and layoffs remain limited, suggesting businesses are still maintaining staffing levels.
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Economists note that factors such as higher tariffs, changes to immigration policy and ongoing interest rate adjustments have begun to influence hiring trends.
The agency says Tuesday’s revision comes from two main things: Some businesses reported fewer jobs on the census than on the monthly survey, and some didn’t respond to the survey at all, which can skew the numbers.
The trade, transportation and utilities sector lost 226,000 jobs. Manufacturing dropped 95,000, and leisure and hospitality fell 176,000. Smaller adjustments affected other sectors like information and professional services.
Just last month, President Donald Trump drew attention to the Bureau of Labor Statistics when he fired its commissioner after questioning the accuracy of the agency’s monthly jobs reports.
In a post on Truth Social, Trump claimed that Dr. Erika McEntarfer, the BLS commissioner, had used “fake job numbers” to benefit former Vice President Kamala Harris’s presidential campaign. He alleged that the agency overstated job growth in March 2024 by about 818,000 and again in August and September 2024 by roughly 112,000.
The Friends of the BLS group rejected those allegations, saying that Trump’s “baseless, damaging claim undermines the valuable work and dedication of BLS staff who produce the reports each month.”
Why are numbers revised?
Initial reports on job numbers aren’t set in stone. When more information about previously reported months rolls in, that’s where revisions come in.
Each month, BLS collects data from a sample of businesses. But no survey is perfect, some companies don’t respond, and reported numbers can differ from the payroll records collected through state unemployment filings.
Every year, the BLS compares its survey data to these other records in what’s called a benchmark revision. These adjustments vary in scope, but they matter because they are intended to give economists, policymakers and the public a more accurate picture of the labor market.
Looking back, the previous annual benchmark revision covering the 12 months through March 2024 also showed a noteworthy downward adjustment. The initial count reported 818,000 fewer jobs, which was later revised to 598,000 in February 2025. That’s the largest single year downward correction since 2009.
Relative to the roughly 171 million people in the labor force, these revisions amounted to about 0.6%.
Final revisions coming in 2026
The BLS press office says these preliminary numbers give a first look at where past estimates were off, with final, official revisions coming in February 2026.
contributed to this report.
