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Comment by ceejayoz | Hacker News Reader

That's noted in this article:

> One bright spot was last month, when hiring increased by 130,000 roles. This was significantly more than the 55,000 additions that had been expected by economists.

But that's 2026 hiring, and the article's about the 2025 revisions. (And the January number, as they all do, may get revised in a few months.)

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If all of 2025 was overestimated, possibly for political purposes, then why believe that the 2026 numbers are accurate?

Revisions are normal.

It would be quite hard in the long run to make faked BLS numbers line up with other independent data points, like ADP's payroll reports and the IRS's revenues.

Exactly. So we should not believe numbers posted ASAP to Yahoo and other for profit media to drive engagement. Wait for revisions from the source.

Cheap publishing that reaches across the world has created a race to the bottom.

Word on the street is that the January number is about to get revised down by a lot. Time will tell.

Also 130'000 seems to be moderate. It beats expectations but is only slightly above what is needed to keep employment stable.

If I recall, the numbers almost always get revised down.

No. See the chart:

https://www.cbsnews.com/news/bls-jobs-report-revision-trump-...

Both directions are common.

Historically both directions are common, but in 2025 every month was revised down from the preliminary report except October. (They were revised down a lot in 2023 and 2024 as well fwiw.)

https://www.hiringlab.org/2026/02/11/january-2026-jobs-repor...

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