A construction worker passes a job site at Metropolitan Park, the first phase of new construction of Amazon's HQ2 development in Arlington, Virginia.
The Labor Department looked to be signaling a jobs market that was out of gas in August and September.
The Bureau of Labor Statistics showed that payrolls grew by 235,000 in August and 194,000 in September. Both were below expectations.
A couple of months can make a difference.
August was more than double the initial estimate and came all the way up to 483,000. The final revision was 379,000, nearly doubling the first count.
Revisions are issued in the two months after the initial report.
This year has seen a lot of wild changes. Through October, revisions from the first estimate to the third and final release have added nearly 1 million jobs. Revisions for the entire year were 101,000 and the net loss was 719,000.
The Labor Department did not reply to the request for comment.
Wall Street took a cautious approach in evaluating what looked like a huge disappointment in November as nonfarm payrolls increased 210,000, well below the 573,000 estimate.
The overall report was better than the headline November jobs number would have you believe. The big jump in November employment in the household survey indicates that an upward revision is likely, as the BLS has been consistently revising job growth much higher as more complete employer records become available.
Most other labor market indicators have been positive.
Two weeks ago, weekly unemployment claims were the lowest they had been in over 50 years, and last week's 222,000 was still more in keeping with what the jobs market looked like before the Pandemic.
The final report should be around 300,000 if the November count keeps pace with the revisions. The year-to-date average was 555,000. The past three months have averaged upward revisions of 193,000, meaning that the most recent totals could move considerably higher.
