Overview

• The BLS’ annual benchmark to state payroll tax records reduced reported nonfarm payrolls by 911,000 for April 2024 through March 2025.
• The largest downward adjustments were in leisure and hospitality (-176,000), professional and business services (-158,000), retail trade (-126,200) and wholesale trade (-110,300).
• The Labor Department’s inspector general initiated a review of BLS data-collection challenges tied to the jobs revision and recent cutbacks in inflation survey work, in a letter to Acting Commissioner William Wiatrowski.
• Traders now heavily price a Federal Reserve rate cut next week, with CME FedWatch showing about 90% odds of a 25 basis-point move, according to Newsweek’s compilation.
• The White House intensified attacks on the BLS and the Fed after President Trump last month dismissed the BLS commissioner and advanced nominee E. J. Antoni, while economists note such revisions are a routine benchmarking practice rather than corrections of mistakes.