‘Massive scandal’: Backlash after 818,000 jobs in America ‘vanish’ from jobs report
Donald Trump has branded revised jobs data released on Wednesday as a ‘massive scandal’ – after it was revealed the US economy created 818,000 fewer jobs over the last year than originally reported.
The Bureau of Labor Statistics said the jobs growth data for the 12 months to March was actually 30 percent less than it’s initial figure of 2.9 million.
The update, which is based on a more detailed quarterly source, was the largest downward revision since 2009 – coinciding with the global financial crisis.
The figures suggest the labor market started cooling sooner than was originally thought.
Trump accused the Biden-Harris administration of being ‘caught fraudulently manipulating job statistics to hide the true extent of the Economic Ruin they have inflicted upon America.’
Writing on his social media site Truth Social, he claimed the data shows the administration ‘padded the numbers with an extra 818,000 jobs that do not exist, and never did.’
He added that if Kamala Harris wins the election ‘millions more jobs will vanish overnight, and inflation will completely destroy our country.’
The former president also repeated his accusations during a campaign rally in North Carolina on Wednesday.
Revisions of jobs data are done every year, and these figures are not the final numbers, which are due to be released early next year.
Concerns over a slowing labor market triggered a market sell-off earlier this month amid fears the US economy is heading toward a recession.
Job growth in the US badly missed expectations in July and the unemployment rate jumped to the highest rate in almost three years.
Employers added 114,000 jobs last month, which was far below the Dow Jones estimate of 185,000.
The unemployment rate also edged higher to 4.3 percent – the highest level since October 2021.
‘We knew when there was a delay that the numbers weren’t going to be good,’ said Rob Wilson, President of Employco USA, an employment solutions firm.
‘This is a big miss by the Labor Department, said Rob Wilson, President of Employco USA, an employment solutions firm.
‘For this to happen during an election year is particularly egregious.
‘We will never know how much these inaccurate numbers impacted the election, but it’s very troubling to know that false data influenced Americans’ voting decisions,’ he added.
Other economists said the revisions were not a ‘shock’, given some of the estimates were for a larger decline.
Goldman Sachs economists said they expected jobs growth for the year to be at least 600,000 weaker than the estimates – and that the decline could be as much as a million.
Before the report, the initial figures indicated an average of around 242,000 jobs added per month during the year to March 2024.
Now the monthly pace is more likely to be around 174,000, which is still considered a healthy rate of hiring, Bloomberg reported.
Source: Dailymail
