The U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics released USDL-26-1425 at 10:00 a.m. (ET) on 28 August 2026. The preliminary Current Employment Statistics (CES) national benchmark revision to total nonfarm employment for March 2026 was −79,000 (−0.1 percent). The preliminary revision for total private employment was −178,000 (−0.1 percent). Government employment was revised up 99,000 (0.4 percent). Annual benchmark revisions over the last 10 years have an absolute average of 0.2 percent of total nonfarm employment.
Each year, CES employment estimates are benchmarked to comprehensive counts of employment from the Quarterly Census of Employment and Wages (QCEW). Those counts come primarily from state unemployment insurance tax records that nearly all employers are required to file with state workforce agencies. The preliminary March figures compare not seasonally adjusted CES employment for March 2026 with universe counts built mainly from QCEW records plus employment not covered by the QCEW, taken from Census Bureau County Business Patterns and the Annual Survey of Public Employment & Payroll, from state employment data, and from the Railroad Retirement Board. The revision is universe employment minus the CES estimate.
Table 1 reports revisions for major industry sectors in March 2026 only. The largest listed downward revision was retail trade, −154,600 (−1 percent). Wholesale trade was revised down 86,200 (−1.4 percent). Trade, transportation, and utilities as a whole was revised down 98,000 (−0.3 percent); wholesale trade, retail trade, transportation and warehousing, and utilities are part of that grouping. Private education and health services was revised down 96,000 (−0.3 percent) and manufacturing down 67,000 (−0.5 percent). The largest listed upward revisions were transportation and warehousing, 135,100 (2 percent); information, 87,000 (3 percent); financial activities, 85,000 (0.9 percent); and construction, 62,000 (0.8 percent). Individual industry series often show larger percentage revisions than total nonfarm employment because statistical sampling error is greater at more detailed levels.
The Bureau states that the preliminary figure is the difference between two independently derived employment counts, each subject to its own sources of error, and that it is a preliminary measure of total error in CES estimates from March 2025 to March 2026. Official establishment survey estimates are not updated based on this preview, and currently published CES data have not been adjusted to the new levels. The final benchmark revision is scheduled to be issued in February 2027 with the January 2027 Employment Situation news release.