And because it is a guess - the WH says it may be closer to 500,000, or as little as +100,000. :-)
http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&ncid=1203&e=4&u=/nm/20041005/bs_nm/economy_jobs_memo_dc&sid=95609869Bush Expects Upward Revision to Jobs Data
Tue Oct 5, 3:20 PM ET By Tim Ahmann
PHILADELPHIA (Reuters) - The White House expects revised data due on Friday to show job creation from March 2003 to March 2004 was much more robust than thought, economists who received a White House memo on the subject said on Tuesday.
The memo from the president's Council of Economic Advisers estimates that payroll figures for the 12-month period will be revised upward by 288,000 jobs, the economists said. Current data shows just 709,000 jobs were created in that stretch. <snip>
The Massachusetts senator has hammered Bush over the 913,000 jobs shed since the Republican took office. Kerry hopes to gain from the prolonged bout of job market weakness when voters go to the polls in four weeks.
The White House declined to release the memo to the public, stressing the uncertain nature of the projections.
"In-house economists have looked at publicly available data and come up with estimates which have an extremely high degree of uncertainty," White House spokeswoman Claire Buchan said.
CEA chief Gregory Mankiw on Tuesday characterized the memo as just an internal "guess." <snip>