This is Washington Edition, the newsletter about money, power and politics in the nation’s capital. Today, economy editor Molly Smith looks  at the major revision to the government’s numbers on job growth. Sign up here and follow us at @bpolitics. Email our editors here.

New Numbers

For the Trump administration, today’s massive revision to US jobs numbers was vindication of the president’s attacks on both government data and the Federal Reserve.

The White House called the widely anticipated downward revision by the beleaguered Bureau of Labor Statistics “another blunder in the lengthy history of inaccuracies and incompetence” at the agency and said it showed that President Donald Trump is right in saying the Fed’s been too slow to cut interest rates.

The figures were striking. The BLS marked down the number of jobs added to the economy in the 12 months ending in March by 911,000 — a record. That suggests that the monthly pace of job growth, on average, was roughly half of what had been initially reported. Final numbers are due early next year.

Trump fired the head of the BLS in August after similarly large downward revisions in monthly jobs data. His nominee to step into the role, EJ Antoni, chief economist at the Heritage Foundation, is awaiting a Senate confirmation hearing.

And it’s not just a matter of filling the top job at the BLS. A third of high-level positions at the agency are vacant. The BLS has been laboring under declining inflation-adjusted funding for years, as well. (Although BLS budget woes predate Trump, other government data collection, from tracking infectious diseases to weather and climate statistics, is under stress from the president’s efforts to downsize the government.) 

The administration so far hasn’t outlined a specific plan as to how to fix the “broken” BLS, a characterization that many economists and statisticians dispute.

Revisions to jobs data — which occur in both monthly reports as well as annually — are routine. The annual revisions benchmark the figures to more complete information from unemployment insurance tax records. Those are more accurate but less timely. The biggest preliminary downward revision before today occurred in 2024, during the Biden administration.

Beyond the political impact, the new data gives another reason for the Fed to cut interest rates — already widely expected to happen at next week’s meeting.

“The revisions make clear that the Fed’s monetary policy is far too restrictive and interest rates remain too high,” the White House statement said. —  Molly Smith

Don’t Miss

The White House made a rare public break with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, saying his decision to attack Hamas in Qatar “does not advance Israel or America’s goals.”

The Trump administration offered El Salvador $4.7 million to imprison deported Venezuelan migrants, but restricted it from being used in ways that conflict with Trump’s policies on immigration, diversity and abortion.

The administration’s official health policy roadmap steers clear of new crackdowns on the food and agriculture industries that have been frequently blamed by top officials for a rise in chronic diseases.

Chief Justice John Roberts will allow the Trump administration to resume a partial freeze on foreign assistance for now, which critics say heightens the risk that some of funding will expire at the end of the month.

Trump called a birthday note he allegedly sent to Jeffrey Epstein a “dead issue,” seeking to tamp down mounting questions over his past interactions with the late disgraced financier.

Governors in northeast states are considering dropping resistance to natural gas pipelines and other fossil fuel projects in the hopes they can convince Trump to allow offshore wind farms to move forward.

An association funded by Apple, Google and other major tech companies is launching a new initiative to strengthen the frayed relationship between Democrats and Silicon Valley ahead of the 2026 midterm elections. 

Sentiment among small business owners edged higher in August, led by the most favorable sales expectations in six months as owners grew more sanguine about the health of their companies.

Watch & Listen

Today on Bloomberg Television’s Balance of Power early edition at 1 p.m., hosts Joe Mathieu and Kriti Gupta interviewed Representatives Lisa McClain, a Republican, and Suzan DelBene, a Democrat, about today’s jobs number revision and the outlook for a government funding deal.

On the program at 5 p.m., they talk with Democratic Senator Chris Coons about  Israel’s strike on Hamas leaders in Qatar and the BLS jobs numbers revision.

On the Big Take podcast, host Sarah Holder is joined by reporters Zahra Hirji and Eric Roston to calculate the economic toll of the Trump administration rolling back US climate science. Listen on iHeart, Apple Podcasts and Spotify.

Chart of the Day

America's housing wealth is shifting. Over the 12 months ending in June, seven states saw their total housing markets lose value, with the biggest drops in Florida, California and Texas, according to Zillow. New York experienced a massive $216 billion gain, of which $260 billion came from New York City — most of the state declined. The change comes from the combination of changes in market values and new construction growth. Overall, the value of the US housing market hit a record $55.1 trillion. Nine metro areas have a housing market worth more than $1 trillion: New York is the biggest ($4.6 trillion), followed by Los Angeles ($3.9 trillion), San Francisco ($1.9 trillion), Boston ($1.3 trillion), Washington, DC ($1.3 trillion), Miami ($1.2 trillion), Chicago ($1.2 trillion), Seattle ($1.1 trillion) and San Diego ($1 trillion). San Jose, California, is just outside the $1 trillion dollar club with a market value of $995 billion. — Alex Tanzi

What’s Next

The producer price index for August will be released tomorrow.

The consumer price index for August will be reported Thursday.

Initial unemployment claims for the week ending Sept. 6 will be reported on Thursday.

The University of Michigan’s preliminary read of consumer sentiment in September will be released on Friday.

Retail sales for August will be reported on Sept. 16.

The import price index also will be reported on Sept. 16.

The Fed’s rate-setting committee meets Sept. 16-17.

Trump departs for a state visit to the UK on Sept. 16.

Seen Elsewhere

• The Justice Department is collecting detailed data on voters from more than 30 states, as Trump supporters make unsubstantiated claims of vote fraud by undocumented immigrants, the New York Times reports.
• Despite New York City's crackdown on Airbnb and other short-term rentals, apartments are harder than ever to find and rents are at all-time highs, the Wall Street Journal reports.
• The amount of time it takes for disaster victims to get federal assistance has been rising over the past decade under presidents of both parties and now takes on average a month, the Associated Press reports.

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