Wall Street analysts slammed the federal government this week for releasing the biggest downward revision to employment numbers in 15 years, botching the release in the process and causing turmoil in the stock and bond markets.
The Bureau of Labor Statistics was scheduled Announces annual “Interim Benchmark Revision” Wednesday at 10 a.m. Eastern time.
The report, which showed 818,000 jobs were lost in the 12 months to March, was delayed by more than 30 minutes.
While benchmark revisions typically interest some economic analysts, this year’s report drew closer scrutiny as Wall Street looked for signs the labor market was cooling, which would likely prompt the Fed to start cutting interest rates sooner.
Analysts who were scrambling to get the revised data that Commerce Secretary Gina Raimondo initially called “misinformation” from former President Donald Trump then contacted the BLS, which provided the numbers to several companies, according to Bloomberg News.
French multinational banking giant BNP Paribas and Japanese bank Mizuho Financial Group were reportedly the first to get access to the data, without other banks being informed.
It took more than 30 minutes for the BLS to release its report, by which time rumors were flying around the streets about the exact number of job losses.
Andrew Brenner, head of international fixed income at NatAlliance Securities, sent out a mass email to clients informing them that the revised figure was actually 676,000 and that it was a figure he had heard from a CNBC analyst.
“Then about 10 minutes later, everyone corrected me,” Brenner told Bloomberg News.
He said the government “has an outdated system and I don’t think it has any understanding of how significant these numbers are.”
Brenner said that until the BLS finally released its numbers, traders were using the accurate data to make money, as evidenced by the wild swings in some Treasury markets and the bond market rally.
Asked whether the leaked data helped those who owned it profit and allow others to miss out, Brenner told Bloomberg News, “There’s no question about that.”
“This is just awful,” Glenn Cappello, managing director at Michler Financial Group, told Bloomberg News when asked about the failure to release the report.
Claudie Thurm, chief economist at New Century Advisors, said the BLS has “big problems.”
“This number has been talked about for a while, they knew it was important, and yet they screwed it up like this,” Capello said.
This is the second time this year that the BLS has made an error in releasing highly anticipated economic data.
In May, the agency mistakenly released its inflation rate 30 minutes earlier than its scheduled 8:30 a.m. Eastern time release.
In late 2022, Wall Street analysts speculated that someone at the BLS may have leaked inflation data before it was released, causing stock futures to surge.
The Post has reached out to the BLS for comment.
