Nonfarm payroll growth revised down by 818,000, Labor Department says

CNBC News’ economic editor, Jeff Cox, writes about revised U.S. labor data over a 12-month period.

According to new data released by the U.S. Labor Department, the U.S. economy created 818,000 fewer jobs than originally reported in the 12-month period through March 2024.

The Bureau of Labor Statistics has announced its preliminary annual benchmark revisions to the nonfarm payroll numbers. These revisions indicate that the actual job growth from April 2023 through March of this year was nearly 30% less than the 2.9 million initially reported.

This is the largest revision since 2009. Employment figures are frequently updated monthly, but the BLS performs a comprehensive yearly revision when it marries data from the Quarterly Census of Employment and Wages.