US Economy Actually Lost 2.5 Million Jobs in January – Reported as a “Gain” of 517,000

The mainstream media cheered the news that the U.S. economy added 517,000 jobs last month. Sadly, that just isn’t true. According to reports and the St. Louis Federal Reserve, the US economy actually lost 2.5 million jobs in January.

Via Rich Dvorak: “The Not Seasonally Adjusted print for monthly change in Nonfarm Payrolls was -2.5 million jobs. That means the headline +517K employment gain reported in January was driven entirely by a +3 million seasonal adjustment.”

More reaction.

This is what actually happened.

Zero Hedge reported:

And with the unemployment rate plunging to 3.4% – matching the lowest in 54 years – from 3.6%, while the payrolls report showing the addition of 517K jobs the highest since July, and far above the highest forecast – in fact, a record 9-sigma beat to median consensus, the shock was merited as today’s report was indeed a blowout.

But why: what happened that everyone was so wrong?

A couple of things. First, as we warned yesterday, today the BLS unveiled a slew of data revisions, which include updating the population controls – which would have the mechanical effect of boosting the labor force – and updating seasonal factors, which further distorted the January nonfarm payroll number (this is key as readers will read shortly). This is indeed what happened:

Photo of author
Jim Hoft is the founder and editor of The Gateway Pundit, one of the top conservative news outlets in America. Jim was awarded the Reed Irvine Accuracy in Media Award in 2013 and is the proud recipient of the Breitbart Award for Excellence in Online Journalism from the Americans for Prosperity Foundation in May 2016. In 2023, The Gateway Pundit received the Most Trusted Print Media Award at the American Liberty Awards.

You can email Jim Hoft here, and read more of Jim Hoft's articles here.

 

Thanks for sharing!