A group of Republican senators is demanding an explanation for how President Biden's Labor Department overstated the number of new jobs created over the past year after the department issued its preliminary downward revision to U.S. employment data for the biggest time since 2009.
Revised figures from the Bureau of Labor Statistics released Wednesday suggested that there were actually 818,000 fewer employed people in the 12 months ending in March than initially reported.
That means job gains reported over that period were probably about 30% less.
The Bureau of Labor Statistics frequently revises its estimates, but Republican senators argued the eye-popping revision was unusually large.
Sen. Roger Marshall (R-Kan.), who is leading the prosecution, said the public deserves an investigation into whether it was intentional wrongdoing.
“Using taxpayer money to deceive the American people for political gain is an outrageous betrayal and one of the reasons the American people have completely lost faith in this administration,” Marshall told the Post.
“At a time when people are struggling to buy gas and groceries, manipulating the numbers to tell a false story is not only dishonest, it's insulting.”
The Washington Post has seen no evidence that the monster revision was politically motivated or even intentional.
In addition to the Kansas Republican, Sens. Ted Budd (R-North Carolina), Rick Scott (R-Fla.), Markwayne Mullin (R-Okla.) and Marsha Blackburn (R-Tenn.) joined in the letter demanding answers.
“These misleading figures have created a false impression among the public and raised questions about the adequacy of the Department of Labor's accuracy and legitimacy,” the senators said in a letter to Acting Labor Secretary Julie Su.
“With the presidential election approaching in about 70 days, the state of the economy is one of the major issues. [Americans’] “There should be no confusion when assessing the health of our economy,” the senators added.
The revision is the largest since 2009, when the figure was overstated by 824,000 jobs.
In total, The BLS estimates It said 2.1 million jobs were added to the U.S. economy in the 12 months ending March 2024, instead of the 2.9 million reported last time, a downward revision of 28%.
Marshall and other Republicans are calling for more concrete data on the changes.
They want to know how many jobs have been recovered from the COVID-19 pandemic, how many of the new jobs were full-time and part-time, and how many new government jobs there were.
The senators have given Su until September 9 to respond to their request.
Other Republicans, including former President Donald Trump, have similarly denounced the sweeping changes.
“Massive scandal! The Harris-Biden Administration has been found to have rigged jobs statistics to hide the true extent of the economic devastation they have inflicted on America,” Trump claimed in a statement. The truth of society post.
“New data from the Bureau of Labor Statistics shows that the administration inflated the numbers by adding 818,000 jobs that don't exist and never did.”
Su has remained active since last March, after the nomination stalled in the Senate due to resistance from Sen. Joe Manchin (I-W.Va.) and Republicans.
Some observers worry that the dismal jobs revision suggests the economy is far weaker than previously thought.
