The government dramatically underestimated job growth this
summer https://www.washingtonpost.com/business/2021/11/16/government-underestimated-job-growth/
“We’re just improving the estimate using everything we know up through the
month we’re releasing, really,” Clinton said. “I mean, it sounds
counterintuitive to most people because revisions — they think, ‘Oh, they
got it wrong the first time.’ But no, we got it right, based on what the
sample told us. But going forward we receive more sample, some corrected
records, and recalculate seasonal factors, which together may indicate a
different story.”
The revisions have recast the narrative of a summer slowdown. In August, when economists expected a strong follow-up to the 943,000 jobs the economy added in July, the BLS announced the U.S. added only 235,000 jobs. Headlines dubbed it a “colossal miss” as job growth took a “giant step back.” Two months later, revisions based on additional data showed August jobs grew by 483,000, more than double the anemic original reading. It was the biggest positive revision in almost four decades.

