Wall Street Journal (09/28/12) Ben Casselman; Colleen McCain Nelson

For the first time in President Barack Obama’s tenure, the number of jobs in the U.S. economy is higher than it was when he took office. U.S. employers added almost 400,000 more jobs than had been previously estimated in the 12 months ended in March, the U.S. Department of Labor reported Thursday. The U.S. still has more than four million fewer jobs than before the recession began in December 2007.

Thursday’s data provided an early look at what is known as DOL’s annual benchmark revision of its payroll data. The changes, which will not become official until early next year, are based on tax records, and they are therefore considered more accurate than the department’s monthly job estimates, which are based on survey data. The revised data show that the economy added about 125,000 jobs since Obama took office, for a new total of nearly 133.7 million jobs. Under the previous numbers, the U.S. showed a loss of 261,000 jobs during Obama’s term of office. The revision boosted the job total by 386,000 between April 2011 and March 2012. The private sector did even better, adding 453,000 more jobs than previously estimated, though government job losses were revised higher by 67,000.