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Today, I explain why the US suddenly has a million fewer jobs than the government previously said we had. Plus: Indexing killed the mutual fund star.
Poof!
The Labor Department said Wednesday that revised data show the US economy had a million fewer jobs at the end of last year than previously reported.
You might ask: “Where did they go?” The simple answer: They never existed in the first place.
This is no surprise to those familiar with the US Bureau of Labor Statistics, the Labor Department division whose employment report each month is among the most important economic releases produced by the government.
Counting jobs is a process that requires frequent revisions, both on a monthly and annual basis, as more accurate — but less timely —information becomes available.
On Wednesday, we got both, and the annual update showed there were 158,497,000 jobs as of December, 1.03 million fewer than the previous BLS estimate.