The BLS Jobs Revision Makes One Thing Clear
The labor market was sluggish before Trump took office and has worsened slightly since then.
Still growing anemically.
Photographer: Lauren Petracca/Bloomberg
The August employment report released last week provided a new view of job growth since President Donald Trump’s “Liberation Day” on April 2, and it’s not pretty. Outside of education and health services, nonfarm payroll employment has fallen by 64,500, and the sector that the president’s tariff policies are supposedly aimed at helping, manufacturing, shed 42,000 jobs. Mining and logging, which consists mostly of oil and gas extraction — another Trump favorite — lost 15,000 jobs for by far the biggest percentage decline of any any sector, 2.4%.
Then again, the preliminary annual benchmark revisions announced on Tuesday by the US Bureau of Labor Statistics provided a new view of job growth in the 12 months leading up to “Liberation Day,” and it’s not exactly lovely, either. Employment growth outside of education and health services was positive, but only barely, and manufacturing and mining and logging were suffering big job losses pre-Trump too. In all, 911,000 fewer jobs were created than previously thought in the year through March 2025.