WASHINGTON, Sept 9 (Reuters) - The U.S. economy likely created 911,000 fewer jobs in the 12 months through March than previously estimated, the government said on Tuesday, suggesting that job growth was already stalling before President Donald Trump’s aggressive tariffs on imports.
Economists had estimated that the Labor Department’s Bureau of Labor Statistics could revise the level of employment from April 2024 through March 2025 down by between 400,000 and 1 million jobs. The level of employment for the 12 months through March 2024 was downgraded by 598,000 jobs.
The reading is a preliminary estimate of the BLS’ annual “benchmark” revision to closely watched payrolls data. Once a year, the BLS compares its non-farm payrolls data, based on monthly surveys of a sample of employers, with a much more complete database of unemployment insurance tax records, the Quarterly Census of Employment and Wages (QCEW) data.
A final benchmark revision will be released in February along with the BLS’ employment report for January. Government statisticians will use the final benchmark count to revise payroll data for the months prior to and after March.
The payrolls benchmark revision followed on the heels of news last Friday that job growth almost stalled in August and the economy shed jobs in June for the first time in four and a half years.
