BLS Cuts U.S. Payrolls by 79,000 Through March 2026 as Economists Expected 183,000 Gain
Updated
Updated · Quartz · Aug 28
BLS Cuts U.S. Payrolls by 79,000 Through March 2026 as Economists Expected 183,000 Gain
3 articles · Updated · Quartz · Aug 28
Summary
79,000 jobs were stripped from U.S. nonfarm employment in the BLS’s preliminary annual benchmark for the year through March 2026, turning a reported 211,000 annual gain into much weaker hiring.
0.1% was cut from total payrolls and 178,000 from private employment after softer counts in retail, education and health services, manufacturing, and business services; government payrolls were revised higher.
11,000 average monthly jobs is the new pace implied by the revision, down from roughly 17,600 previously reported and far below the upward revision economists had expected.
July already showed the labor market weakening, with payrolls down 23,000 and May-June revised lower by 103,000, extending a pattern in which benchmark revisions have lowered employment estimates in seven of the past eight years.
February 2027 will bring the final benchmark update, when the BLS folds more complete state unemployment-insurance records into the official payroll series.