The government overestimated the number of jobs added to the U.S. economy by more than one-third in January, continuing the trend of revising down huge 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 down from 353,000 to 229,000, a difference of 124,000, according to the BLS. Despite the revisions for the previous month, the BLS still reported above-trend job growth for February at 275,000, far higher than expectations of 200,000, while the unemployment rate jumped to 3.9% from 3.7%.
The number of jobs added in December was also revised down by 43,000, from 333,000 to 290,000, meaning a total of 167,000 jobs were revised away in the latest jobs report, according to the BLS. The downward revisions exceed some recent months of job gains, including October 2023, which initially announced only 150,000 jobs added.
The government consistently overestimated the number of jobs added in 2023, later revising down totals by an average of 105,000 per month. In total, the number of jobs added in the year was 1,255,000 less than initially reported.
Recent years have not seen the same quantity of consistent downward revisions, with there being only one negative revision in 2021 and five in 2022, meaning the majority of months’ totals were revised up.
The total number of jobs added has been consistently bolstered by the addition of government positions, reaching another new high in February of 23,180,000 total employees, the fourth month in a row that it has done so. The government added 52,000 jobs in the month and has averaged around 53,000 a month for the past year, according to the BLS
The U.S.’ sovereign debt has continued to surge amid the growth in government jobs, totaling $34.44 trillion as of Wednesday, up from $34 trillion at the start of 2024, according to the Treasury Department. The federal debt rose by more than $800 billion in just the fourth quarter of 2023, while gross domestic product grew by just $328.7 billion in the same quarter.
The BLS did not immediately respond to a request to comment from the Daily Caller News Foundation.
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