Game Over For Birth/Death Adjustment?

Some economists claim that recent nonfarm payroll gains are misleadingly strong and are masking the underlying weakness in the labor market. These die-hard hard-landers point to a wonky calculation by the Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS), i.e., the Birth/Death Adjustment (B/D).

The B/D Adjustment attempts to account for job gains attributable to new businesses and job losses due to business closures that don't show up in the BLS survey of employers about the number of their payroll workers. Some say the BLS is underestimating the number of business failures due to the pandemic and the sharp increase in interest rates since early 2022. So the payroll employment series is too high, as confirmed by the much weaker household employment survey.