U.S. March, April job losses revised higher

(C) Reuters. Job seekers prepare for career fair to open at Rutgers University in New Brunswick, New Jersey

WASHINGTON (Reuters) – The U.S. economy lost a record 20.537 million jobs in April and not 20.5 million as reported last Friday, according to revised data published by the Labor Department this week.

The Labor’s Department’s Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS), which compiles the closely followed monthly employment report, also raised March’s job losses to show nonfarm payrolls decreasing 881,000 instead of 870,000 as previously estimated.

Employment gains for February were revised up to 251,000 from 230,000 as previously reported.

Nonfarm payrolls are calculated from a survey of establishments.

“On May 11, 2020, BLS corrected errors in national estimates for seasonally adjusted all employees in professional and technical services, professional and business services, private service-providing, service-providing, total private, and total nonfarm,” the Labor Department said in a statement on its website. “The corrected change in total nonfarm employment for April is 37,000 lower than initially reported.”

There was no impact on the unemployment rate, which is drawn from a separate survey of households. The unemployment rate jumped to 14.7% in April, a post-World War Two record, from 4.4% in March.