The saying holds true that things are not always what they seem, including job creation in the American economy. When you have people across the country who claim that the economy is their top concern, that’s something you can’t afford to get wrong. Except the Bureau of Labor Statistics keeps doing just that.
According to the new revisions released by the BLS, the data indicate that between April 2024 and March 2025, instead of creating 1.8 million new jobs, the U.S. economy created less than half of that — a mere 847,000 jobs.
Wasn’t that supposed to be the time period of Joe Biden and Kamala Harris’s “red hot economy?” While the Leftmedia was profusely praising Biden’s “dream economy,” and contending that “the job market is as healthy as it has ever been,” apparently, the truth was that it was lukewarm at best. No wonder the American people didn’t feel like it was “the best economy in decades,” and that they couldn’t get ahead.
BLS does indeed do a clean-up at the end of August every year, but the clean-ups seem to keep getting bigger, and for two years in a row. What’s the issue? COVID isn’t to blame because by 2021, all of the restrictions on commerce had been lifted; therefore, the effect on the statistical analysis of business openings and closings would have been over. It’s quite fishy that the BLS statistics overstated job growth by nearly two million for two consecutive years, during a period when the Biden White House desperately needed to demonstrate economic growth amid an inflationary wave. But regardless of whether partisan politics are at play, the point is that people can no longer rely on the accuracy of the data.
It’s probably a good reason to initiate an investigation into BLS operations, as the Trump administration has done. The Wall Street Journal reported, “Five weeks after President Trump fired the chief of the agency that gathers the country’s labor and price data, his advisers are preparing a report laying out alleged shortcomings of the Bureau of Labor Statistics’ jobs data, according to people familiar with the matter.” The administration is considering publishing the report, written by the Council of Economic Advisors, in the coming weeks.
One of the issues that the report may reveal is that only 43% of employers respond to the monthly jobs survey, which is down 60% from before the pandemic. Large businesses more consistently respond, whereas smaller businesses may be more sporadic, especially during turbulent economic times. Another problem with the surveys, according to the Journal, is the model that they rely on to estimate job changes from businesses being created and closing. When the economy slows, the model tends to overestimate jobs from new business formation.
Trump continues to blame the Federal Reserve for the continued economic malaise, stating on Tuesday, “Revisions make clear that the Fed’s monetary policy is far too restrictive and interest rates remain too high.” While others, like the Center for American Progress, blame it on Trump’s steep tariffs, his hardline stance on immigration, and the BBB for cutting tax credits for renewable energy companies. It could be all of these things put together, or it could be none of these things, but one thing is certain: uncertainty in the market hurts businesses.
Economist Sara Estrep, one of the authors of the CAP report, commented, “Companies are uncertain about what’s happening. Everything has been changing on a day-to-day basis, so it’s not clear what production should look like. That’s why they aren’t hiring.”
Trump has an incredible amount of irons in the fire to bring the economy back from the devastation caused by the Biden administration. From illegal immigrants taking American jobs to releasing the stranglehold of regulations on companies to getting those tax cuts for everyday Americans to getting better deals across the globe to help America to using tariffs to reduce the deficit and bring businesses back on American soil — the list goes on. It took Ronald Reagan four years to turn the failing Carter economy around. Here’s hoping Donald Trump can turn things around sooner rather than later.
