Nonfarm payroll growth revised down by 818,000, Labor Department says

[progree]

2. From the source

https://www.bls.gov/web/empsit/cesprelbmk.htm

CES Preliminary Benchmark Announcement
In accordance with usual practice, the Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) is announcing the preliminary estimate of the upcoming annual benchmark revision to the establishment survey employment series. The final benchmark revision will be issued in February 2025 with the publication of the January 2025 Employment Situation news release.

Each year, the Current Employment Statistics (CES) survey employment estimates are benchmarked to comprehensive counts of employment for the month of March. These counts are derived from state unemployment insurance (UI) tax records that nearly all employers are required to file. For National CES employment series, the annual benchmark revisions over the last 10 years have averaged plus or minus one-tenth of one percent of total nonfarm employment. The preliminary estimate of the benchmark revision indicates an adjustment to March 2024 total nonfarm employment of -818,000 (-0.5 percent).

Preliminary benchmark revisions are calculated only for the month of March 2024 for the major industry sectors in table 1. The existing employment series are not updated with the release of the preliminary benchmark estimate. The data for all CES series will be updated when the final benchmark revision is issued.

Table 1 shows the March 2024 preliminary benchmark revisions by major industry sector. As is typically the case, many of the individual industry series show larger percentage revisions than the total nonfarm series, primarily because statistical sampling error is greater at more detailed levels than at an aggregated level.

Table 1. National Current Employment Statistics March 2024
Preliminary Benchmark Revisions by Major Industry Sector
Benchmark revision (in thousands), Percent
Total nonfarm -818 , -0.5
Total private -819 , -0.6
(snipped more rows of subsectors -Progree)

All emphasis added