NPR. This is the indicator from planet money. I'm Darym Woods. And I'm Waylon Wong. We are still processing

this shock wave of President Trump firing the Commissioner of Labor Statistics, Erica McIntyre for last week.

The jobs report that her agency puts out is packed with some of our favorite indicators.

It's the only report we haven't air horn for.

It's true.

And Trump claimed without evidence that downward revisions showing jobs numbers were

lower than initially reported means the numbers are rigged. As we showed yesterday, that's not true.

There are too many layers of civil servants involved for rigging to take place without that becoming

public knowledge. But it is true that the downward revisions were large.

So today on the show, how revisions to the jobs numbers happen,

what the process is, and what last week's revisions say about the economy.

Here on The Indicator, we have announced the jobs numbers right from the show's beginning. We knew it had to be jobs.

Once a month, we put aside the stock market.

Who cares?

254,000 jobs.

187,000 jobs.

Man, we love a jobs number around here. And whether you're a cleaner or a carpenter, or even if you're looking for work, the jobs report is like a mirror up for most people's personal finances.

We do need to caution, though, the jobs report is just the first pass. The numbers can change a lot like we saw on Friday. The BLS made a big downward revision to its previously

reported job numbers. The air horn turned into a sad trombone. Yeah, and, you know, revisions are a big part of the jobs report.

They happen all the time.

Yes, it was larger than normal, but every single month, the previous couple of months, gets revised.

And then there's a big adjustment annually, too.

...