An employment sign is seen on the window of a Fedex store on August 02, 2024 in New York City.
Michael M. Santiago | Getty Images
The U.S. economy created 818,000 fewer jobs than originally reported in the 12-month period through March 2024, the Labor Department reported Wednesday.
As part of its preliminary annual benchmark revisions to the nonfarm payroll numbers, the Bureau of Labor Statistics said the actual job growth was nearly 30% less than the initially reported 2.9 million from April 2023 through March of the following year.
Wall Street had been watching the numbers closely, with many economists expecting a sizeable reduction in the originally reported numbers. Even with the revisions, job creation during the period stood at more than 2 million, but the report could be seen as indication that the labor market is not as strong as the previous BLS reporting had made it out to be.
At the sector level, the biggest downward revision came in professional and business services, where job growth was 358,000 less. Other areas revised lower included leisure and hospitality (-150,000), manufacturing (-115,000) and trade, transportation and utilities (-104,000).
Within the trade category, retail trade numbers were cut by 129,000.
A few sectors saw upward revisions, including private education and health services (87,000), transportation and warehousing (56,400) and other services (21,000).
Government jobs were little changed after the revisions, picking up just 1,000.
This is breaking news. Please check back for updates.