> 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.)
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.
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.)
There's no chance for survival just by glancing over the headlines.