Former President Trump quickly jumped on a massive downward revision by the Labor Department on new job growth, charging in a social media post that the Biden-Harris administration “PADDED THE NUMBERS.”
The Labor Department on Wednesday announced that the nation’s economy added far fewer jobs last year and earlier this year than previously reported.
According to the Labor Department, monthly payroll statistics overstated new jobs by roughly 818,000 during the 12-month period that ended in March of this year. That’s a downward revision of nearly 30%.
Economists see the updated figures as further signs of a weakening labor market, which had remained strong the past couple of years as the nation’s economy soared following a massive recession during the coronavirus pandemic. The jobs surge had continued despite high interest rates and increased concerns of a pending recession.
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Former President Trump responds to a question from a reporter after his remarks on Aug. 20, 2024, at the Livingston County Sheriff’s Office in Howell, Michigan. (Nic Antaya/Getty Images)
Trump, the Republican Party’s presidential nominee, has long slammed both President Biden and Vice President Kamala Harris – who last month replaced her boss at the top of the Democrats’ 2024 ticket – over high inflation that Americans have been coping with during the three-year economic rebound.
Now he’s arguing, without providing proof, that the Biden administration deliberately padded the jobs numbers.
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“MASSIVE SCANDAL! The Harris-Biden Administration has been caught fraudulently manipulating Job Statistics to hide the true extent of the Economic Ruin they have inflicted upon America,” Trump charged in a statement on his Truth Social platform.
And he argued, “New Data from the Bureau of Labor Statistics shows that the Administration PADDED THE NUMBERS with an extra 818,000 Jobs that DO NOT EXIST, AND NEVER DID.”
Vice President Kamala Harris and her running mate, Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz, attend a campaign rally in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, on Aug. 20, 2024. (Reuters/Kevin Lamarque)
But economists say the revisions – which are preliminary – are part of an annual process where initial monthly estimates are reconciled with more accurate data that takes longer to acquire.
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Jared Bernstein, chair of the White House Council of Economic Advisers, emphasized in a statement that “neither the preliminary nor final revision directly affect estimates of job growth in recent months – important to keep in mind when assessing today’s labor market.”
The Harris campaign highlighted that “statistical revisions are normal and bump up and down and that there was a 500,000 revision in 2019 during the Trump administration.
They also noted that the revision “doesn’t change the fact” that 15 million jobs were created since Biden and Harris entered office in January 2021.
Public opinion surveys all indicate that the economy remains top of mind with American voters.
According to the latest Fox News national polling, 38% of those questioned said the economy was their top issue in deciding their vote for president, far ahead of all other issues tested.
And according to the survey, which was conducted Aug. 9-12, Trump had six-point edge over Harris when it came to doing a better job steering the economy.