OAN Staff James Meyers
9:46 AM – Wednesday, August 21, 2024
U.S. job expansion over the 12 months ending in March was overestimated by a staggering 818,000 on Wednesday, which is a worrisome sign that the economy has continued to slow down.
The massive change means that an estimated 2.1 million jobs were created in the U.S. in the past year, compared to the estimated 2.9 million jobs that the Biden administration touted.
The latest blunder comes as the unemployment rate across the country increased to a new post-pandemic high of 4.3%. Additionally, the share of American workers both employed and unemployed looking for a new job grew to the highest level in a decade, according to a new survey.
Wednesday’s latest update from the Bureau of Labor Statistics was the biggest negative revision since 2009. Forecasters worried it could have been as high as one million.
However, stocks reacted positively to the announcement, with the S&P 500 rising by 0.3% just after the revisions’ release, extending its daily gain to 0.5% and hitting its highest price since July 16th.
The employment in professional and business services saw the largest adjustment, down 358,000 jobs compared to what was previously reported. Hospitality and leisure was next, down 150,000.
Additionally, information occupations saw the biggest adjustment, a decline of 2.3%.
Meanwhile, this year’s revision was extremely anticipated as Wall Street has been debating whether the Federal Reserve has been too slow to cut rates.
The Fed is expected to cut interest rates by 0.25% at its next policy-setting meeting on September 18th.
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