Business

The US Added 306,000 Fewer Jobs Than Previously Thought

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The U.S. jobs market added 306,000 fewer jobs from March 2022 to March 2023 than was previously announced, according to a preliminary revised estimate on Wednesday from the Bureau of Labor Statistics.

The estimate, which will be finalized in January, indicates that from March 2022 to March 2023, the U.S. economy added 306,000 fewer nonfarm payroll jobs, averaging to 25,500 fewer jobs per month, according to the BLS. The largest revisions were in transportation and warehousing and professional and business services, accounting for 146,400 and 116,000 fewer jobs, respectively, than previously reported.

“These counts are derived from state unemployment insurance (UI) tax records that nearly all employers are required to file,” the release from the BLS reads. “For National CES employment series, the annual benchmark revisions over the last 10 years have averaged plus or minus one-tenth of one percent of total nonfarm employment. The preliminary estimate of the benchmark revision indicates a downward adjustment to March 2023 total nonfarm employment of −306,000 (−0.2 percent).”

The wholesale trade sector and the government were revised up, adding 47,700 and 52,000 more jobs, respectively, than were previously thought, according to the BLS. The total number of private jobs for the period was 358,000 fewer than previously announced.

Over 25% of the jobs we initially thought we gained this year weren’t actually there: pic.twitter.com/otu58N8GZD

— EJ Antoni (@RealEJAntoni) August 23, 2023

For the entire 12-month period, the U.S. added 3.74 million jobs after the revision, which is higher than the average of around 2 million that were added per year before the COVID-19 pandemic, according to MarketWatch. The revision coincides with trends seen during the period of higher layoff announcements and jobless claims.

The U.S. added 187,000 jobs in July, less than the 200,000 jobs that economists expected. The number of jobs added in June and May was revised down by a cumulative 49,000.

The U.S. economy had better than expected growth in the second quarter of 2023, increasing by 2.4% year-over-year, with the previous growth from the first quarter of 2023 being revised up from 1.1% to 2.0%.