Brian Lehrer: A Daily Politics Podcast First Jobs Numbers After Trump Fired BLS Chief: Even Worse
Sep 10, 2025
Ben Casselman, the chief economics correspondent for The New York Times, dives into the latest troubling job statistics, revealing 911,000 fewer jobs created prior to March 2025. He discusses the reliability of unemployment data amid political pressures and budget issues at the Bureau of Labor Statistics. Personal stories from listeners shed light on the job market challenges, including the impact of AI on employment, and the influence of tariffs on inflation. Casselman also contrasts the fiscal strategies of past and current administrations.
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Annual Revisions Can Be Big
- The BLS annually aligns survey-based monthly jobs numbers with harder state unemployment records, which can produce large revisions.
- This year's revision cut about 911,000 jobs from the year through March, an unusually large downward adjustment.
Measurement Struggles In Turbulent Times
- Measuring a rapidly changing economy is harder and revisions grow during volatile periods like the pandemic and its aftermath.
- Declining budgets at statistical agencies hurt modernization and their ability to improve measurement accuracy.
Modernization Needs Funding
- The BLS has been adopting private-sector "big data" but budget limits slow deployment and force continued reliance on older survey methods.
- Modernizing statistical methods requires sustained resources to run old programs while building new ones.