U.S. economy loses almost a million jobs in the span of a year, per BLS revision

An updated jobs revision from the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) has shown that the economy lost a net 911,000 jobs, almost one million, within the span of roughly a year, causing investors to have some concern but ultimately brush off as yet another piece of evidence toward a jumbo interest-rate cut this month.

A "Not Hiring" commercial facility, Justin Sullivan/Getty Images.

An official press release from the BLS has shown that the preliminary estimate of the Current Employment Statistics (CES) benchmark revision has reached roughly a net loss of 911,000 nonfarm employment, a 0.6% decline. This represents a roughly year-long period from April 2024 to March 2025, with some of the Trump presidency presiding over this change in job losses. Another revision is expected to be released in February 2026 with updated totals for the first year of the Trump administration.

The BLS noted that job numbers in mid-to-late 2024 and early 2025 were inflated due to underreporting from businesses to the CES survey, or plain simply no participation at all, thus underrepresenting job losses in certain sectors of the economy.

While these job numbers are certainly a detrimental sign for the future vitality of the labor market as well as the accuracy of BLS data, it has also seemed to have quite an opposite impact for investors. In fact, the loss of jobs works to further the narrative of a large rate cut in September, with the betting odds for a 25 basis point to even a 50 basis point cut surging in recent weeks.

Michael James, Managing Director for Equity Trading at Rosenblatt Securities, responded to the news quite favorably, "The job revision furthers the Fed rate cut narrative… meaningful reduction in labor growth, furthers the narrative for the Fed rate cut cycle to begin later this month." James, like other analysts, believe that the jobs revision, while bad in spirit, works to improve optimism for a rate cut, which drastically outshines labor market losses.

In addition, Chief Economist at Annex Wealth Management Brian Jacobsen alluded to a very similar conclusion as Mr. James. "The preliminary benchmark revision was a lot bigger than expected… If the Fed was justified in cutting 50 bps in September 2024, it could be justified in cutting 50 bps in September 2025… more likely course is for the Fed to deliver an October and December cut," he responded.