The head of the Bureau of Labor Statistics was fired by President Donald Trump on Friday, just hours after a startling government report revealed that hiring had drastically decreased over the previous three months.
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He attacked the BLS commissioner, Erika McEntarfer, on Truth Social. He ordered his administration to fire the Biden appointment, saying she was “producing the nation’s jobs reports.”
Trump, “We need accurate Jobs Numbers,” “Someone far more capable and qualified will take her place. Such significant figures must be impartial and true; they cannot be swayed for political ends.
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In a later post, he stepped up his criticism, saying, “I think today’s Jobs Numbers were rigged to make the Republicans, and ME, look bad.” He made a claim without providing any supporting proof.
In July, the U.S. economy added only 73,000 jobs, far fewer than expected, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics’ data released Friday morning. Additionally, it stated that it has updated the May and June figures, which showed a decrease of almost 200,000 jobs from the initial announcement.
McEntarfer was fired, an administration official confirmed to NBC News.
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Washington, which has already been rocked by waves of firings over the first seven months of Trump’s second administration, was rocked by the dismissal.
Max Stier, the CEO of the nonpartisan Partnership for Public Service, stated, “President Trump is once again destroying the credibility of our government by firing expert and nonpartisan officials because he does not like the facts that they present.” “Governments that go down this path find themselves in ugly territory very quickly.”
Bill Wiatrowski, the BLS deputy commissioner who assumed the position during the Obama administration, would serve as acting CEO “during the search for a replacement,” according to Labor Secretary Lori Chavez-DeRemersaid.
During Trump’s first term, Julie Hatch Maxfield, the official in charge of the office that generates the jobs report, joined the agency.
A request for comment from McEntarfer was not immediately answered.
McEntarfer was confirmed by the Senate in January 2024 by a vote of 86 to 8 (six senators abstained) after President Joe Biden nominated him in July 2023. In the voting, she was overwhelmingly supported by both parties.
Republicans who voted to confirm her included Vice President JD Vance.
Vance’s communications director, William Martin, stated that the vice president supports the president’s choice.
Martin stated, “Vice President Vance is fully in line with President Trump and was happy to see him fire the BLS commissioner. “His confirmation vote simply shows that he occasionally allowed nominations to proceed even when he didn’t agree with them. It’s time for left-wing activists in the mainstream media to acknowledge that President Trump has the authority to choose and dismiss the individuals he chooses to work in the government he won by a wide margin.
McEntarfer has worked with the federal government for the most of her career. She has served in the Treasury Department, the Census Bureau, and the White House Council of Economic Advisers during the past 20 years.
Without providing any supporting proof, Trump asserted that the commissioner “faked the Jobs Numbers before the Election to try and boost Kamala’s chances of Victory.”
Trump’s move to fire McEntarfer was criticized by former Labor Department officials.
The majority of the labor is completed by knowledgeable career employees who take pride in their work,” Julie Su, the former Labor secretary under Biden, told NBC News. “This president has also denigrated and targeted career workers.
The BLS regularly updates economic data, including GDP, inflation, and employment reports. There are frequently lags in data collecting because of the size of the US economy and the response rates to BLS surveys. However, that delay does not indicate any misconduct or deceit.
“Nobody is faking numbers,” Daniel Koh, the former chief of staff at the Labor Department, wrote on X. “Revisions happen all the time.”
In the past, when the BLS numbers were positive for his administration in April, May, and June, Trump has hailed them.
According to the White House, the jobs report from April “proved” that Trump was “revitalizing” the economy in May. Trump shared “GREAT JOBS NUMBERS” on Truth Social in June.
While in the White House in March, Trump mentioned “how good some of these numbers are.”
It is common in nondemocratic nations like China, Venezuela, and Russia for political appointees to politicize economic data and maybe tamper with it.
Following the dismissal, Labor Secretary Chavez-DeRemers stated that our employment figures must be truthful, fair, and never manipulated for political ends.
Any deterioration of reliable data may have an effect on consumers, corporations, lenders, and legislators. Because the institutions that gather it are usually granted independence, U.S. economic data has always been regarded as the gold standard.
Through internet, mail, phone, and in-person interactions, the agency conducts surveys of American consumers and businesses. It creates reports for the general public and government decision-makers based on the replies obtained using those techniques.
The main organization that gathers data on the country’s labor markets and economy is the Bureau of Labor Statistics.
The agency states in its mission statement that it “measures labor market activity, working conditions, price changes, and productivity in the U.S. economy to support public and private decision making.”
Widespread government employment layoffs have also raised concerns about the accuracy of government data collection.
The BLS reported in August of last year that 818,000 fewer jobs had been created over a 12-month period than first believed.
Trump, who has recently started disparaging Fed Chair Jerome Powell, stated that the head of the central bank “should also be put ‘out to pasture.'”
Powell has been under constant pressure from Trump to cut interest rates. However, according to the Fed chair, there is still “a long way to go to really understand” the consequences of the president’s tariffs.
“You might not be able to fully repair inflation if you travel too quickly, in which case you’ll need to return. That is ineffective. “You risk causing needless harm to the labor market if you act too late,” Powell stated on Wednesday.
Jonathan Allen and Caroline Kenny made contributions.
