The Biden-Harris administration’s Department of Labor overstated job gains by 818,000 and was forced to revise down the total in its preliminary annual benchmark review.
The DOL previously estimated that the economy would create approximately 242,000 jobs per month. However, a tally of payroll data from April 2023 through March 2024 revealed that only 174,000 jobs were added monthly.
Nearly half of the downward revisions were for the professional and business services sector — a decrease of 358,000 jobs. The DOL also overestimated leisure and hospitality by 150,000, retail trade by 129,000, and manufacturing by 115,000.
The administration’s nearly -30% revision of the job numbers marks the most considerable overestimation since 2009. However, the final figures will not be reported until February 2025.
Former President Donald Trump torched the Biden-Harris administration for the exaggerated job numbers, calling it a “massive scandal.”
On Wednesday morning, Trump wrote on social media, “The Harris-Biden Administration has been caught fraudulently manipulating Job Statistics to hide the true extent of the Economic Ruin they have inflicted upon America.”
“New Data from the Bureau of Labor Statistics shows that the Administration PADDED THE NUMBERS with an extra 818,000 Jobs that DO NOT EXIST, AND NEVER DID,” Trump continued. “The real Numbers are much worse than that and, if Comrade Kamala gets another four years, millions more Jobs will VANISH overnight, and Inflation will completely destroy our Country.”
Trump warned that a Harris-Walz administration would eliminate Americans’ life savings.
“With a TRUMP VICTORY, we will once again have the Greatest Economy in History,” he remarked.
During Trump’s campaign stop in North Carolina on Wednesday afternoon, he stated, “It really isn’t a revision. It’s a total lie.”
Jared Bernstein, chair of the White House Council of Economic Advisers, released a statement defending the administration, claiming that “neither the preliminary nor final revision directly affect estimates of job growth in recent months – important to keep in mind when assessing today’s labor market.”
“The estimate of -818,000 is ‘wedged in’ at -68K over 12 months of job growth, Apr23-Mar24. IF it sticks—which we won’t know until Feb’ 25—that takes job gains over that period from gangbuster 2.9 million to solid 2.1 million,” Bernstein continued, “or from about 240,000/month to 170,000/month. The latter, which is also the average over the past 3 months, is plenty strong enough to keep the expansion on pace.”
“The *preliminary* (it will change before it’s official) payroll benchmark revision doesn’t change the fact that this has been and remains a strong jobs recovery, powering real wage gains, solid consumer spending, and record small biz creation,” he said.
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