Data Insight: April’s jobs report was biggest disappointment in at least 2 years

Government data released on Friday showed that the U.S. economy added a disappointing 175K jobs in April. This was 68K below the consensus estimate of economists, who had predicted a payroll expansion of 243K for the month.

Looking at payroll announcements since March 2022, Friday’s results marked the biggest miss on the headline payroll number over that span — the deepest disappointment in at least two years.

See the following tables summarizing the period from March 2022-April 2024:

In addition to April’s disappointment, revisions for the previous months of 2024 have indicated that the original estimates for the monthly employment figures have proved too optimistic about job growth. All told, revisions have cut the number of jobs added in 2024 by a net total of 124K compared to the estimates that were first announced when the respective monthly reports came out.

Note on the data included here: Each month, the U.S. government announces an estimate of the number of jobs added or lost by the economy during the previous month. These figures are then revised twice in subsequent reports. The revised totals are then subject to annual benchmarking that can further change the amounts.

The figures in the tables above show the initial jobs figures as they were originally announced, compared to the consensus estimate at the time of release. These numbers are further compared to the current official monthly totals, after they have been updated by whatever rounds of revision have happened since release.