Search Results
Working Paper
BLS Payroll Revisions: Forecasting Recessions
We investigate the behavior of BLS monthly revisions to payroll growth at turning points. We find some evidence corroborating claims by former BLS commissioners and market analysts that revisions around turning points tend to be procyclical and more serially correlated. Furthermore, we do see large revisions before turning points. However, the ability to use revisions to forecast business cycles' turning points seems limited. First, we do see lots of false positives: large revisions occur without a subsequent recession. Second, even within-sample, other indicators, such as initial jobless ...
Journal Article
BLS Benchmark Revisions: Is This Time Different?
In this Economic Commentary, we discuss the Bureau of Labor Statistics’ (BLS) payroll benchmark revisions, the role of these revisions, BLS methodology, and recent time series. While we do see some large benchmark revisions in recent years, these revisions are not big enough to indicate that something structural about the series has changed. Finally, considering a time series from 2010 through 2025, we find that past benchmark revisions have information that may help predict future revisions.