The government overestimated the number of jobs added to the U.S. economy by more than a third in January, continuing a trend of downwardly revising large job gains, according to data from the Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS).
The total number of jobs added to the economy in January was revised downward from 353,000 to 229,000, a difference of 124,000. according to To BLS. Despite the previous month's revision, the BLS still reported above-trend payroll growth in February of 275,000 jobs, well above the expected 200,000 jobs, while the unemployment rate fell from 3.7% to 3.9. %. (Related: Despite hiring gains, layoffs spike for another month)
According to the BLS, the number of jobs added in December was also revised down by 43,000, from 333,000 to 290,000, for a total of 167,000 jobs in the latest employment report. The downward revisions outpace job gains in recent months, including in October 2023, when employment numbers were initially announced at just 150,000.
The government has consistently overestimated job growth in 2023, later revising the total downward by an average of 105,000 jobs per month. In total, the number of jobs added during the year was 1,255,000 fewer than originally reported.
The unprecedented discrepancy between the establishment survey and the household income survey worsened in February's employment statistics, which fell 275,000 to 184,000. The Household Survey shows no net increase in employment since April 2023, almost a year ago. pic.twitter.com/wIwhbmJO2x
— Dr. EJ Antoni (@RealEJAntoni) March 8, 2024
The same amount of consistent downward revisions have not been seen in recent years, with only one negative revision in 2021 and five in 2022, meaning that the majority of monthly totals were revised upward.
The total number of jobs added has been consistently increasing due to the addition of government jobs, hitting a new high for the fourth consecutive month in February with 23.18 million total employees. The government added 52,000 jobs in the same month, for an average of about 53,000 jobs per month over the past year, according to the BLS.
The U.S. national debt continues to soar on the back of rising government employment, totaling $34.44 trillion as of Wednesday, up from $34 trillion at the beginning of 2024. according to to the Ministry of Finance. Federal debt increased by more than $800 billion in the fourth quarter of 2023 alone, while gross domestic product increased by only $328.7 billion in the same quarter.
BLS did not immediately respond to a request for comment from the Daily Caller News Foundation.
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