US Payroll Gains Not as Robust as Reported, BLS Data Suggest

The US job market may be a lot less vibrant than Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell and his colleagues seem to think.

Data published Wednesday by the Bureau of Labor Statistics suggest payrolls might have grown about 60,000 less per month on average last year than the roughly 250,000 run-rate derived from the agency’s monthly employment report. The new figures, from the Quarterly Census of Employment and Wages, cover more than 95% of US jobs, and are eventually used in annual revisions to the monthly data.

The QCEW release, as it’s known, adds to uncertainty surrounding the state of ...