WASHINGTON, D.C. — Today, Joint Economic Committee Vice Chairman David Schweikert issued the following statement after the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics released its preliminary annual benchmark revision to nonfarm payroll jobs, which revealed that job growth was revised down by 818,000 jobs through the 12-month period ending in March 2024 – the largest markdown since 2009.

“This significant downward revision from BLS confirms what we’ve known since January 2021: that the U.S. economy is much weaker than President Biden and Vice President Harris have been selling,” said Vice Chairman Schweikert. “This administration's excessive spending, outrageous tax hikes, and burdensome regulations added over the last 3.5 years have made life much more difficult for American families than before the pandemic. Yet Biden and Harris have continued to peddle the narrative that the economy is robust because of ‘record-breaking’ job growth. Now, we know that the job gain estimates last year were notably overstated by more than 800,000 in yet another example of how badly the Biden-Harris administration has failed the American people.”

Background on the BLS preliminary annual benchmark revision:

• This downward revision of 818,000 jobs represents a 28% markdown – decreasing the growth in employment from 2.9 million to 2.1 million for the 12-month period ending in March.
• This revision is the largest since 2009 and approximately 5 times as large as the 10-year annual absolute average revision.
• The professional and business services sector saw the largest downward revision with 358,000 fewer jobs. The leisure and hospitality sector was revised down by 150,000 jobs and the manufacturing sector was revised down by 115,000 jobs.
• The final benchmark revision will be published in February 2025.