Job Growth Last Year Was Far Worse Than We Thought - Here's Why

TL;DR

Overall Summary: Job numbers were massively revised downward—2025 actually created only 181,000 jobs instead of the reported 584,000, revealing nearly 900,000 "fake" jobs over two years.

Key Points

• 1.2024 jobs revised down 500,000 (from 2 million to 1.5 million); 2025 revised down 403,000 (from 584,000 to 181,000)
• 2.Why always wrong: BLS surveys fewer employers now, can't track new/closing businesses in real time, and undocumented workers appear in surveys but not tax records
• 3.Wage growth hit 18-month low at 3.7% yearly—slowing since 2022 while inflation kept rising
• 4.December retail sales went flat (0% growth vs expected 0.4%); October and November also revised downward
• 5.Consumer savings rate collapsed to 3.5%—down from 31.8% pandemic peak
• 6.Median retirement savings: $955 ($40,000 if excluding people with zero saved); only 1% of Americans have $1 million saved