Trump cries foul as job numbers for 2023 revised down by 818,000

The Department of Labor announced Wednesday it was revising down its initial assessment of how many jobs were added in 2023 by 818,000 jobs. Republican presidential candidate former President Donald Trump called the changes “fraudulent” while he was speaking at a campaign event in Michigan to talk about crime.
An estimated 2 million jobs were added in the U.S. in 2023, not 2.9 million as initially reported. The numbers won’t be finalized until February, and could be revised again.
It is normal for the Labor Department to revise its numbers after a fiscal year ends, but 818,000 is a larger drop than is typical.
“This year’s revision was unusually large,” The New York Times reported. “Over the previous decade, the annual updates had added or subtracted an average of about 173,000 jobs to each year’s total.”
At his campaign event, Trump spoke about the big drop, accusing the Biden administration of inflating the numbers on purpose. “There has been a report that the job numbers over the last period of time were fraudulent,” he claimed.
The numbers show the biggest revisions were made in the professional and business services sector, with 358,000 fewer jobs than earlier reported, followed by drops in the leisure and hospitality, retail and manufacturing sectors.
The markets did not react strongly to news of the revision, as the economy added fewer than expected jobs in July and the unemployment rate bumped up to 4.3%, higher than expected.
The Wall Street Journal reported, “Investors had already been anticipating a downward adjustment for the period in question. More broadly, many haven’t quite believed that the labor market was as strong as payroll figures have suggested because other data points. —such as a rising unemployment rate — have told a less rosy story.”
After a rough transition when Vice President Kamala Harris entered the race, Trump has been trying to turn the focus back to issues like immigration and the economy, where he feels he has strength.
A recent Deseret News/HarrisX poll showed 61% of U.S. voters think the economy is on the wrong track, compared to 30% of voters who say it’s on the right track.
At the Democratic National Convention this week, speakers are working to frame Harris as a fresh choice, rather than tie her to the record of the Biden administration. Trump, meanwhile, is traveling to swing states this week, trying to push the opposite narrative.