The Big BLS Revision Isn’t a Conspiracy: Jonathan Levin

For the second year in a row, the esoteric process of revising labor market data is proving very popular with recession mongers and conspiracy theorists.

Released on Tuesday, the preliminary benchmark revision to payrolls data suggested 911,000 fewer jobs were created than previously thought in the year through March 2025. Investors worried that the labor market may be shakier than previously understood, while President Donald Trump’s government sought to undermine the data altogether. Vice President JD Vance said “it’s difficult to overstate how useless BLS data had become,” and Labor Secretary Lori Chavez-DeRemer claimed that the numbers gave American people “even more reason ...