Washington (Reuters) -The American economy created 911,000 less jobs in the 12 months until March than what had been said previously, said the Labor Department on Tuesday, which suggests that employment growth had already stagnated before the increase in customs duties announced in spring by President Donald Trump against his main business partners.

Economists had estimated that the Labor Statistics Office (BLS) could lower the number of job creations for the period from April 2024 to March 2025 from 400,000 to 1 million jobs.

The number of job creations for the 12 months up to March 2024 was revised downwards 598,000 jobs.

This is a preliminary estimate of the annual “reference” BLS revision concerning data on the wage bill, which are subject to close monitoring.

A final revision of the reference point will be published in February, at the same time as the employment report for the month of January.

The revision of the reference figures for the wage bill follows the figures, published last Friday, showing a quasi-stagnation of employment growth in August and a loss of jobs in June for the first time in four and a half years.

Helvated by uncertainty linked to American trade policy, the labor market has also been put under pressure by the policy of repression of immigration of the White House, which reduced the offer of labor.

The use by artificial intelligence companies and automation also slows the demand for employees.

These data are closely followed by the marches while the latest indicators concerning the health of the labor market in the United States have already sowed doubt in the minds of investors and strengthened bets of a drop in rate of the Federal Reserve (Fed) at its meeting scheduled for next week.

(Lucia Mutikani; Diana Mandia; edited by Augustin Turpin)

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