WSJ What’s News - Revised Job Data Show U.S. Labor Market Weaker Than Previously Reported

Episode Date: September 9, 2025

P.M. Edition for Sept. 9. The Labor Department’s Bureau of Labor Statistics said today that the U.S. added 911,000 fewer jobs over the 12 months that ended in March. WSJ economics reporter Justin Lahart explains what that means for the U.S. economy. Plus, new data from the Census Bureau shows that inflation erased Americans’ income gains last year. Journal economics reporter Konrad Putzier breaks down the data and discusses what that says about the economy President Trump inherited. And Israel has attacked Hamas’s leadership in Doha, Qatar. We hear from WSJ senior Middle East correspondent Summer Said about the impact this strike could have on peace negotiations. Alex Ossola hosts. Sign up for the WSJ's free What's News newsletter. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

An Israeli attack on Hamas leadership in Qatar creates a challenge to peace negotiations in the Middle East. Arab mediators think that this is unfortunately the end of diplomacy road for them. If Doha suspend the talks, which other country would feel more comfortable having Hamas leaders showing up and having talks if they know that the possibility of an attack is right there and it's real? Plus, a revised jobs report shows a significantly weaker picture, of the U.S. labor market than earlier reports indicated. And inflation erased U.S. income gains last year, but it didn't affect everyone equally. It's Tuesday, September 9th.

I'm Alex Osloaf for the Wall Street Journal. This is the PM edition of What's News, the top headlines and business stories that move the world today. We begin this evening with the U.S. labor market. The pace of job growth was like. significantly weaker than reported from early 2024 through early this year. The Bureau of Labor Statistics said today that the U.S. added 911,000 fewer jobs over the 12 months that ended in March, trimming by a bit more than half, the 1.79 million jobs, the official data now show. For more, I'm joined now by WSJ economics reporter, Justin Layhart.

Justin, is this a typical amount for a revision? It seems kind of big. Yeah, it's very big. And last year was quite big, too. You know, this is preliminary. A lot of people think that it won't be quite as bad as what it showed. That's what happened last year. But still, significant downward revision to job growth.

Why did we see such a drastic revision of the data? A lot of what is happening seems to be distortions that we're still dealing with surrounding the pandemic. So it makes it still harder for the Labor Department to measure what's going on with the job market. In this case, part of the problem was apparently employers were reporting one thing to the BLS and then saying something different to tax authority. They also had a problem with the people who weren't responding to their survey. And then there are always lots of new businesses being formed. There's always lots of businesses that are shutting down. It is hard to keep up with that, particularly at turning points in the economy.

And these distortions from the pandemic may still be at place. there. I know this data was a little bit older, but what does it tell us about our current moment in the economy? It probably doesn't weigh on the Fed as much as you might think, because it doesn't say anything about what's happened recently, but probably does make the Fed a little more doveish than they were already. But we do know that the job market has deteriorated in the last several months, and it just seems that the job market is simply weaker now than it was. That was WSJ reporter, Justin Layhart. According to people familiar with the matter, the White House is preparing a report laying out alleged shortcomings in BLS data.

This comes amid an unprecedented level of criticism by a presidential administration at what is normally seen as the routine, nonpartisan job of compiling crucial U.S. economic data. Major U.S. stock indexes closed at new records today. optimism for rate cuts outweighed concerns about a slowing job market. The S&P 500 added about a quarter of a percent, and the Dow and the NASDAQ were both up roughly 0.4%. It's the first time since December 2024 that all three indexes finished at new highs on the same day. Inflation ate into Americans' wage gains last year, leaving household incomes little changed. That's according to new data from the Census Bureau out today. In its annual report card, of household's financial well-being, it said that inflation-adjusted median household income last

year was $83,730, not statistically different from the 2023 estimate. WSJ economics reporter Conrad Putzer is here now with more. Conrad, was this felt universally across the population or did some groups see bigger changes? So there's different stories with different parts of the population, right? Higher income Americans, as you can probably expect, did pretty well compared to the rest of the country. They saw their income grow. even adjusted for inflation, typical American median income didn't grow, or at least didn't grow by much, and same with the lower end of the spectrum. So you see this widening income gap. And then you see other differences, too. For example, black Americans saw their income go down

last year, even as Hispanic and Asian incomes rose, and white incomes essentially stayed flat. So you do see this widening racial income gap. And then the other thing that's noteworthy is that incomes for men rose faster than income for women. We know that men make more money than women, on average, and that gap actually widened last year. So wage growth for men was 3.7% in 2024, but income growth for women was basically statistically insignificant. This data is obviously from last year, but what does it show us about the sort of broader trend for income before that?

What it basically tells us is what kind of economy Trump inherited when he became president this year, and basically it's an economy where a lot of people didn't really get financially because of inflation. So if we compare it 2019 to 2024, the median real income adjusted for inflation basically didn't change. So that's five years where people didn't see their real income grow because inflation was so high. And it helps us explain why people feel bad about the economy, which they keep telling us in surveys. It doesn't really tell us anything about where we are right now because this is 2024, but it's still a bad sign. We know that the economy is weakened since the spring. We know that the labor market's in bad shape. We know that prices are going up,

that inflation's picking up again. And we now know that even before all this started, people were already kind of like treading water and staying in place financially. And that's not a good position to be in. That was WSJ reporter. Conrad Puts here. Thanks, Conrad. Thanks for having me. Coming up, what the Israeli attack on Hamas leadership in Qatar means for peace negotiations. That's after the break. Israel's Air Force carried out a strike on Hamas's senior political leadership in Doha, Qatar today. The attack brings Israel's fight against the group to a Gulf nation that is a U.S. partner and a mediator in talks to resolve the war in Gaza. Hamas said that five of its members had been killed, and Qatar said that a member of its security forces had also been killed.

The Emirate, which hosts America's most important air base in the region, condemned the attack. White House Press Secretary Caroline Levitt said this afternoon that the U.S. military notified the Trump administration that Israel was attacking Hamas, prompting President Trump to order U.S. envoy Steve Whitkoff to inform the Qataris about the strike. Levitt said that Trump spoke to Israeli Prime Minister bin Yamin Netanyahu and Qatar's Emir Shik Tamim bin Hamad al-Dani after the attack. She added that the president wants all hostages really. East and for the war to end. Unilaterally bombing inside Qatar, a sovereign nation and close ally of the United States that is working very hard in bravely taking risks with us to broker peace does not advance Israel or America's goals. However, eliminating Hamas, who have profited off

the misery of those living in Gaza, is a worthy goal. I'm joined now by WSJ Senior Middle East correspondent Summer Saeed. Summer, what do we know about this attack and what the impact was? So far, what we know is the night before Hamas had met with senior Qatari officials who were telling them to deal positively with the U.S. outline to end the war and release all hostages. Hamas then told the mediators that they would be meeting the next day to discuss the outline and negotiate with the members and get back to them. And in the middle of them having that meeting that includes a number of senior Hamas officials the attack took place.

The picture is very muddy when it comes to who got impacted from Hamas leadership. Hamas is saying it's a failed attempt on their leadership, but yet they're not giving us more details on that. Even without the sort of granular detail, as you mentioned, how significant a hit does it seem to be for Hamas? Well, the issue for months now when it comes to negotiations to end the war or get a partial deal or a multi-phase deal is it's been always the last. of trust in what the U.S. is offering for Hamas.

They've always wanted very strong guarantees to end the war. So for them to have this kind of attack as they're negotiating a response to the latest proposal or outline they have received is a quite strong hit to the credibility of either the U.S. or Israel. What does the attack mean for broader diplomacy in the region? The issue is, when you speak to the mediators, they don't take it as an attack on just Hamas. They take it as an attack on a mediating country. So as a mediator, they take it basically, as from now on, no country hosting Hamas is safe

and you cannot have a reliable mediation process. The other factor in this mix is Qatar is a major U.S. ally. And it could be a wake of call for them at the end of the day that are we safe or immune now? Can we continue negotiating a deal with Hamas if there is an attack on our soil? So the way they view it from me speaking to Arab mediators, they just think that this is unfortunately the end of diplomacy road for them. Can they feel safe in the future to have Hamas either sitting in Cairo or in Doha? Or if Doha suspend the talks, which other country would feel more comfortable having Hamas

leaders showing up and having talks if they know that the possibility of an attack is right there and it's real. That was WSJ Senior Middle East correspondent, Summer Saeed. A Russian glide bomb killed at least 23 people today and wounded over a dozen more in an attack in eastern Ukraine. Most of the dead were elderly people who had lined up at a mobile post office to receive their pensions. It was one of the deadliest strikes against civilians in the war so far.

The attack came as negotiations to be. bring a halt to the fighting, which is well into its fourth year, have stalled. Moscow has intensified strikes on civilian areas in Ukraine in the weeks since Russian President Vladimir Putin met with President Trump in Alaska to discuss a route to ending the war. And finally, Apple unveiled a thinner iPhone-air model today, its first new smartphone in years. The company hopes the device will excite customers after Apple has strong. struggled to roll out new AI features. The thinner iPhone error, which will cost $999, will replace the Plus model iPhones from prior years.

The ultra-thin phone is a precursor to a foldable iPhone, which the company is expected to produce as soon as next year. The iPhone 17-based model will continue to cost $799. Apple eliminated a lower storage version of the Pro, so customers that want the cheapest Pro model will have to buy a version with more storage that starts at $1,09. Touting new models and phone capabilities as a reason for price increases will allow Apple to avoid blaming President Trump's tariffs, continuing Chief Executive Tim Cook's pattern

of definitely handling the president's seesawing trade policies. And that's what's news for this Tuesday afternoon. Today's show is produced by Pierre Biennameh and Rodney Davis with supervising producer Michael Cosmites. I'm Alex Osala for the Wall Street Journal. We'll be back with a news show tomorrow morning. Thanks for listening.