275K Jobs Added in February -- But 124K Subtracted in January

Total nonfarm payroll employment rose by 275,000 in February, and the unemployment rate increased to 3.9 percent, the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics reported today. Job gains occurred in health care, in government, in food services and drinking places, in social assistance, and in transportation and warehousing. ...

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The change in total nonfarm payroll employment for December was revised down by 43,000, from +333,000 to +290,000, and the change for January was revised down by 124,000, from +353,000 to +229,000. With these revisions, employment in December and January combined is 167,000 lower than previously reported. (Monthly revisions result from additional reports received from businesses and government agencies since the last published estimates and from the recalculation of seasonal factors.)

Ed Morrissey

That's a huge revision for January; it's a downward revision of slightly over 35%. That is a wide miss on a statistical basis, so wide as to prompt questions as to what exactly is happening at the Bureau of Labor Statistics. The jump in unemployed people (334K) last month outstrips the number of newly employed too (275K), which is why the unemployment rate went up even as we "added" that many jobs in the economy. 

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