Benchmark Revisions: Job losses are much worse than we though

The benchmarking process is a near complete count of employment because the employment data is taken from records filed by employers covered under state unemployment insurance and federal unemployment laws of which 98% of employment falls. 

The annual benchmark process establishes the job level for a specific industry. After the level is established at benchmark time, a sample of employers are used to estimate the job change each month. After a year, the benchmark figures replace the monthly estimated figures and the process starts again.

The following figures show the adjustment to to the employment numbers as a result of the benchmark revisions of March 2010.

As the figure 1 and 2 show, all sectors in the U.S. economy received downward revisions in their employment figures, excepting the government. This means that, after the 2010 benchmark revisions, the U.S. economy lost more jobs that were previously reported in the monthly estimated figures from the bureau of Labor Statistics.

 

 Source: Economic Forecasting Center, Georgia State University.

For the state of Georgia, the overall employment level was downgraded starting in the fourth quarter of 2008 and for the whole 2009. Thus, job losses for calendar year 2009 were revised upward by 29K to 202.9K. 

The downgrades were prevalent in almost all sectors, with the exception of  Finance & Insurance and Government sectors. 

 Source: Economic Forecasting Center, Georgia State University.