Labor Data Watch

The Bureau of Labor Statistics reported the economy added 130,000 jobs in January 2026 — more than double the 55,000 Wall Street expected. But the headline came with an asterisk the size of a footnote: buried in the same release, BLS applied its annual benchmark revision, cutting 898,000 jobs from April 2024 through March 2025. The agency was admitting, in technical language, that it had been overcounting jobs by nearly a million for two years. ADP, counting independently, reported just 22,000 new jobs — a 108K gap from the government figure. The unemployment rate ticked down to 4.3%, and the broader U-6 fell to 8.0%. This was the first Employment Situation published after the benchmark revision, and the first with the new birth-death model methodology. Every number in 2025 was retroactively lower than originally reported.

The Bureau of Labor Statistics reported the economy added 50,000 jobs in December 2025 — a number that would later be revised to a loss of 17,000 after the annual benchmark adjustment. ADP, counting 26 million actual paychecks independently, reported a gain of 41,000. Both sources agreed on one thing: 2025 was the weakest year for job growth since 2003, averaging just 49,000 jobs per month. In this same report, BLS quietly revised October down by 68,000 jobs and November down by 8,000 — erasing 76,000 jobs from prior headlines. The unemployment rate edged down to 4.4%, but the broader U-6 measure — which counts discouraged workers and the involuntarily part-time — sat at 8.4%, nearly double the headline figure. This report was published with no confirmed BLS Commissioner. Erika McEntarfer was fired August 1, 2025, hours after releasing a jobs report the President didn’t like.