(The Center Square) – New federal economic data shows that previous data significantly overestimated the health of the U.S. economy.
The Department of Labor released revised jobs data that showed they overestimated the number of jobs created in the U.S. economy by 818,000, a whopping revision that set off alarm bells Wednesday.
Economic data is often revised in this way, but the size of this change is large enough to raise eyebrows.
“Even this number is shocking, job growth is still positive,” Jamie Cox, Managing Partner for Harris Financial Group in Richmond, Va., said in a statement. “If you are in the rate cut in September camp, these data all but seal the deal on what Fed needed to cut rates.”
The new job creation numbers are nearly a third lower than the previous figure. The numbers come amid scrutiny of the economic record of Vice President Kamala Harris, the Democratic presidential pick, whose administration oversaw a massive spike in inflation while in office.
To address inflation, the U.S. Federal Reserve hikes interest rates, and those rates have increased significantly in recent years. However the Fed relies on federal jobs data to make those decisions.
Economists are concerned that the data could be so far off for even as that data is used for elections and for federal decision making.
“THE DATA DEPENDENT FED IS FLYING BLIND — UNRELIABLE DATA,” Johns Hopkins Professor of Applied Economics Steve Hanke wrote on X.
The revision drew widespread outrage. What the Washington Post called a “big fix” to the jobs data, and The Wall Street Journal reported that the job market “was weaker than previously reported.”
“It’s troubling to see the Dept. of Labor issue an unusually large correction to last year’s jobs report,” Rep. Adrian Smith, R-Neb., wrote on X, formerly known as Twitter. “As unemployment rises, American workers need pro-growth action, not the stale policies of the Biden-Harris admin.”
Former President Donald Trump blasted the Biden administration, calling it a “massive scandal.”
“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,” Trump said in a statement. “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. 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.“
