How many nonfarm payroll jobs have been added in 2025 year-to-date?
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Executive summary
Through April 2025, BLS monthly releases show cumulative job gains of 143,000 in January, 177,000 in April and 228,000 in March, plus other monthly figures; adding the known monthly BLS totals for January (+143,000), March (+228,000), April (+177,000), May (+139,000), June (+147,000), July (+79,000 revised to +72,000), August (+22,000 revised to −4,000), and September (+119,000) yields a 2025 year‑to‑date total of approximately 1,021,000 nonfarm payroll jobs through September 2025 when summing the monthly figures reported in these sources [1] [2] [3] [4] [5] [6] [7] [8]. Available sources do not provide a single BLS “year‑to‑date” aggregate number; this total is a sum of monthlies reported in the cited items [1] [2] [3] [4] [5] [6] [7] [8].
1. What the sources report month by month: the raw pieces
The Bureau of Labor Statistics and related reporting give monthly nonfarm payroll changes that can be added together to approximate YTD job growth: January +143,000 (BLS Economics Daily) [1]; March +228,000 (BLS Economics Daily) [2]; April +177,000 (BLS Economics Daily) [3]; May +139,000 (CNBC summary of May BLS report) [4]; June +147,000 (market commentary summarizing the June report) [5]; July initially +79,000 but later revised down by 7,000 to +72,000 in the BLS revisions note [7]; August initially +22,000, later revised to −4,000 in the same BLS documentation and press coverage [6] [7]; September +119,000 per the September BLS release [8] [9]. These are the discrete monthly figures found in the available reporting [1] [2] [3] [4] [5] [7] [6] [8].
2. How I computed the year‑to‑date total and caveats
Summing the monthly figures above gives: Jan 143k + Feb (not found in current reporting) + Mar 228k + Apr 177k + May 139k + Jun 147k + Jul 72k + Aug −4k + Sep 119k = 1,021,000 if February is treated as unavailable in current reporting and thus excluded from the sum. The sources do not publish a consolidated BLS year‑to‑date number in the provided documents, and February’s monthly figure is not present in the supplied material; therefore this is a month‑by‑month aggregation based solely on the cited items [1] [2] [3] [4] [5] [7] [6] [8]. If February had a positive or negative value, the true YTD total would change accordingly—available sources do not mention February’s 2025 payroll change in this dataset [10].
3. Revisions matter: the largest downward revision in years
The BLS’s preliminary benchmark revision reduced the 12‑month total through March 2025 by 911,000 jobs compared with initial estimates—the largest downward revision since at least 2000—highlighting that monthly headline figures can be substantially revised later [11]. The BLS also documented routine monthly revisions (for example July down 7k, August down 26k) that change the cumulative total after initial release [7]. Any YTD sum built from contemporaneous monthly reports should therefore be considered provisional [11] [7].
4. Alternative framings and what other outlets show
Financial and news outlets cite the same monthly BLS releases but sometimes report slightly different monthlies based on preliminary or revised numbers—for example CNBC and Cambridge Currencies reported May, June and September monthlies as +139k, +147k and +119k respectively [4] [5] [9]. TradingEconomics emphasizes the large benchmark revision and the resulting downward shift in the 12‑month total through March 2025 [11]. Different outlets may thus portray either a still‑adding jobs story or a cooling labor market depending on which revisions they emphasize [11] [6].
5. Bottom line and what to watch next
The best answer available from the supplied documents is an aggregate built by adding reported monthly nonfarm payroll changes; that aggregation yields roughly 1,021,000 jobs added through September 2025 using the cited monthlies but omitting February because it is not present in the available sources [1] [2] [3] [4] [5] [7] [6] [8]. This figure is provisional: the BLS’s benchmark and monthly revisions have materially altered past totals and could change the YTD sum [11] [7]. For a definitive, single “year‑to‑date” number, consult the BLS monthly release tables or FRED’s PAYEMS series for a consistent cumulative calculation [10].