WASHINGTON: The US economy likely created 386,000 more jobs in the 12 months through March than previously estimated, the Labor Department said on Thursday, news welcomed by the White House as President Barack Obama campaigns to win re-election.
Obama must convince voters he deserves a second term despite an unemployment rate above 8 percent that is high by historic standards, and his team played up the news as a sign that the economy was moving in the right direction.
In a preliminary estimate of its annual benchmark revision to closely watched payrolls data, the Labor Department said its latest comparison suggests the level of employment in March was 0.3 percent higher than it had previously stated.
White House economic adviser Alan Krueger said the revision indicated that the US economy had added "nearly 5.1 million private sector jobs, on net, over the past 30 months." Employment is likely to be a key factor in the Nov. 6 election.
But Republicans focused on other data out on Thursday, including a downward revision in second-quarter economic growth to a 1.3 percent annual pace, from the 1.7 percent previously estimated rate.
The Labor Department's revision of the jobs numbers is an annual exercise that compares its non-farm payroll data, based on monthly surveys of a sample of employers, with a much more complete database of unemployment insurance tax reports.
A final benchmark revision will be released in February along with the department's report on employment in January. Government statisticians will use the final benchmark count to revise payroll data for months both prior to and after March.
A breakdown by industry sector showed 453,000 more total private sector jobs were created than initially thought, including 145,000 more jobs in the trade, transportation, and utilities category, plus 85,000 more in construction.
In contrast, the benchmark revision lowered the estimate for job creation in the government sector by 65,000, while it found that 25,000 fewer manufacturing jobs had been generated over the 12 month period than previously thought.
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