In an Aug. 21 TRUTH Social post, 2024 Republican nominee and former President Donald Trump claimed the Biden-Harris administration purportedly manipulated job statistics, citing new data from the Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) which he said showed an “extra 818,000 jobs that do not exist and never did.”

Verdict: False

While data from the BLS shows that there were 818,000 fewer total nonfarm jobs than previously estimated, there is no evidence that they were manipulated by the Biden-Harris administration. Multiple experts said that Trump’s claim was false.

Fact Check:

U.S. Special Counsel Jack Smith has brought a “revised federal indictment” against Trump in relation to his 2020 election case following a July 1 Supreme Court decision that found “former presidents have broad immunity from criminal prosecution,” according to Reuters.

In the TRUTH Social post, Trump claimed the Biden-Harris administration purportedly manipulated job statistics, citing new data from the BLS, which he said showed an “extra 818,000 jobs that do not exist and never did.”

“MASSIVE SCANDAL! The Harris-Biden Administration has been caught fraudulently manipulating Job Statistics to hide the true extent of the Economic Ruin they have inflicted upon America. New Data from the Bureau of Labor Statistics shows that the Administration PADDED THE NUMBERS with an extra 818,000 Jobs that DO NOT EXIST, AND NEVER DID,” Trump said.

The claim is false. According to the BLS’ preliminary benchmark revision of its current employment statistics (CES), the U.S. added 818,000 fewer total nonfarm jobs (or a -0.5% benchmark revision) than previously estimated for the 12-month period between March 2023 and March 2024. In addition to adding 818,000 fewer total nonfarm jobs, the U.S. also added 819,000 fewer total private jobs (or a -0.6% benchmark revision) than previously estimated between March 2023 and March 2024, according to the same preliminary benchmark revision from the BLS.

Likewise, the numbers varied across multiple industry sectors, with manufacturing having added 115,000 fewer jobs (-0.9%), trade, transportation, and utilities having added 104,000 fewer jobs (-0.4%), professional and business services having added 358,000 fewer jobs (-1.6%), and leisure and hospitality having added 150,000 fewer jobs (-0.9%), the same preliminary data shows.

In an August 22 article, Statista referenced the BLS data, indicating the initial estimate claimed 2.90 million jobs had been added to the economy between March 2023 and March 2024, but the revised estimate places the number at 2.08 million for the same 12-month period. In terms of average monthly job growth, the total number of nonfarm jobs changed from an initial estimate of 242,000 to a revised estimate of 174,000, also according to Statista. Finally, the statistic indicating the U.S. had added 818,000 fewer total nonfarm jobs is “equivalent to -0.5% of total employment,” the outlet reported.

The BLS’ preliminary benchmark revision occurs annually and is based on CES survey employment estimates, which are “benchmarked to comprehensive counts of employment for the month of March,” according to the BLS’ website.

“These counts are derived from state unemployment insurance (UI) tax records that nearly all employers are required to file. For [the] 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,” BLS’ website states. (RELATED: Donald Trump Claims Kamala Harris Put In Place A Policy That Excuses Up To $1,000 Worth Of Theft)

While the current data shows the U.S. added 818,000 fewer total nonfarm jobs, it is important to reiterate these numbers are only preliminary, and the final benchmark revision will be released in February 2025, according to the BLS’ website.

Both The New York Times and CNN reported that BLS’ preliminary benchmark revision data showed the U.S. had added 818,000 fewer total nonfarm jobs than initially estimated.

Multiple experts offered their perspectives on Trump’s claim with Check Your Fact.

Dean Baker, a senior economist at the liberal Center for Economic Policy and Research, labeled Trump’s claim as “absurd.”

“This is an absurd accusation that shows an [astonishing] level of ignorance and/or dishonesty in a presidential candidate. The Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) is an independent agency [t]hat operates without political interference,” Baker said.

Brian Riedl, a senior fellow at the conservative Manhattan Institute, agreed that Trump’s claim is “absurd.”

“President Trump’s claim of a government conspiracy is absurd. Employment data is regularly revised upward and downward as new information comes in, and such revisions have followed no pattern across Republican and Democratic administrations. Faking the jobs data would require a massive conspiracy of hundreds of career BLS employees. Nor is it clear why BLS would fake the data in the spring and then correct it in August, which is still before the election,” Riedl said.

“Additionally, even with the downward revision, the job market remains strong and the unemployment rate remains low. No significant economic weakness has been found,” he continued.

Ernie Tedeschi, director of economics at the Budget Lab at Yale University and former chief economist at the White House Council of Economic Advisers (CEA) under President Joe Biden, labeled Trump’s claim as “transparently false.”

“The claim by former President Trump that the preliminary benchmark revision is evidence of manipulated job statistics is false. In fact it’s transparently false, since it’s the same agency—the Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) —that both publishes the monthly jobs statistics and oversees the annual benchmark revision process, so it would truly be the most self-defeating conspiracy in history for them to undo their own manipulation,” Tedeschi said.

“In reality, BLS has run this very same regular process for decades, with a preliminary estimate of the benchmark revision coming out in August and a final estimate coming out the following February. During the Trump Administration in fact, in August 2019, the preliminary benchmark revision was -501,000. Close followers of labor market data like economists and market analysts are well aware of these revisions and have ways of forecasting and anticipating them. The -818,000 preliminary benchmark revision was within the range of private sector expectations such as those from Goldman Sachs,” he added.

Alex Nowrasteh, vice president for economic and social policy studies at the libertarian Cato Institute, said BLS revising their employment data is “a normal occurrence” and is not representative of anything “nefarious.”

“BLS regularly revises economic data from previous quarters, including employment data. This is a normal occurrence and happens frequently during every administration. Official jobs numbers are not manipulated by politicians but are produced by serious professionals who analyze survey and other data. Politicians frequently misstate the data presented by BLS but that’s not BLS’ fault and that’s not what happened here. If there were a nefarious Biden administration plot to inflate job numbers, why would they issue a revision before the election?” Nowrasteh said.

Dr. Ali Bustamante, deputy director of worker power and economic security at the liberal Roosevelt Institute, said Trump “egregiously [mischaracterized]” the BLS data.

“Former President Trump is egregiously mischaracterizing the annual revisions made to the Bureau of Labor Statistics Current Employment Survey estimates of total nonfarm employment. The BLS publishes monthly total nonfarm employment estimates based on an employer survey that is weighted to address sampling errors related to variation in the number of surveys submitted by businesses across industries every month,” Bustamante explained.

“Every year, the BLS undergoes a benchmarking process where it uses state unemployment insurance tax records filed by businesses to revise the employment estimates it produced during the previous year. Revisions related to the benchmarking process are available for every year since 1979. This year’s preliminary benchmarking revision led to a downward revision of 818,000 jobs, 0.5 percent of all nonfarm employment. Since 1979, benchmarking has led nonfarm employment to be revised upward or downward by up to 0.7 percent,” he continued.

CEA Chair Jared Bernstein said jobs recovery remains “historically strong” despite the BLS’ preliminary benchmark revision.

“This preliminary estimate doesn’t change the fact that the jobs recovery has been and remains historically strong, delivering solid job and wage gains, strong consumer spending, and record small business creation,” Bernstein said via a statement provided by a White House official.

Besides his TRUTH Social post, Trump made the claim during an Aug. 22 visit to Arizona, according to PolitiFact. The outlet reported the claim was false.

Check Your Fact has also contacted a Trump spokesperson for comment.