Kansas Sen. Roger Marshall is demanding testimony from the head of the Bureau of Labor Statistics over the monster jobs report revision it issued in August.
Last month, the BLS announced that there were actually 818,000 fewer jobs added to the economy during the 12 months ending in March than what it initially reported, marking the largest downward revision of its kind since 2009.
In other words, job growth was about 28% less than what was initially reported.
“This drastic downward revision of jobs is unacceptable and the BLS must answer for this error,” Marshall wrote in a Thursday letter to Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.), who chairs the Senate Committee on Health, Education, Labor and Pensions (HELP).
The Republican, who sits on the Senate HELP Committee, demanded that Sanders pursue testimony from Erika McEntarfer, commissioner of the BLS.
“The Committee must have the opportunity to question Commissioner McEntarfer directly as to why such a key indicator of the job market has been inaccurately reported over the past year, in addition to the actions she and the Bureau are pursuing to rectify this situation moving forward,” he argued.
The Senate HELP Committee has jurisdiction over labor statistics.
Historically, the BLS makes revisions to its jobs estimates as it accrues more reliable data, but Marshall and others were taken aback by how large the adjustment was in August.
Last month, Marshall and four other Republicans penned a letter to the Department of Labor demanding answers about why the mammoth revision was necessary.
The senators stressed that the dubious original stats that came out led to favorable headlines that gave Americans a false impression about the state of the economy.
“The job market reports are a tool used by economists, policymakers, and business owners to help navigate shifting economic conditions and signal future economic health,” Marshall added in his letter to Sanders.
“With only two months until the election, voters must have confidence in the agency tasked with reporting economic conditions.”
Prior to the revision in August, the last time job estimates were overstated by that much was in 2009, when they were overcooked by about 824,000.
In total, the BLS estimated in August that 2.1 million jobs were added to the US economy during the 12-month period ending March 2024, rather than the 2.9 million previously reported.
Republicans had quickly slammed the development at the time.
“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,” former President Donald Trump raged on Truth Social.
“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.”
On Wednesday, Federal Reserve Chairman Jerome Powell announced the first major rate cut since the COVID-19 pandemic.
As he previously hinted, Powell opted to go big with the rate cut and slash its benchmark interest rate target by a whopping 50 basis points — half a percentage point — to a range between 4.75% and 5%, down from 5.25% to 5.50%.
That move came against the backdrop of signs showing cooling inflation as well as lingering fears of a possible economic slowdown.
