How strong is the US economy, really?
A new report from the Labor Department just threw cold water on the narrative of steady job growth.
It revealed that the country added 911,000 fewer jobs in the year through March than originally thought.
That’s not a small revision. It means the job market was weaker than believed under the final stretch of Biden’s presidency.
It was weaker during Trump’s early months in office.
Economists had braced for a downward adjustment, but this figure hit harder than expected.
It comes as the Federal Reserve weighs whether to cut interest rates next week.
Weak Hiring Raises Recession Alarms
Just last week, the Labor Department reported only 22,000 jobs added in August, with unemployment ticking up to 4.3%.
Tuesday’s revision reinforces the picture of a labor market losing steam.
“With services being the last bastion of employment growth, this does not bode well,” warned Bradley Saunders of Capital Economics.
The politics are just as messy. Trump recently fired the head of the Bureau of Labor Statistics, accusing her of “rigging” the numbers.
His administration now insists the revisions prove Biden’s economy was the real disaster. Meanwhile, Wall Street shrugged—for now.
But as one strategist put it: a weakening jobs market may push the Fed toward rate cuts, yet it could also “throw cold water on the recent rally.”
The stakes? Nothing less than whether America stumbles into stagflation.
