{"id":39084,"date":"2025-08-01T22:11:08","date_gmt":"2025-08-01T22:11:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/39084\/"},"modified":"2025-08-01T22:11:08","modified_gmt":"2025-08-01T22:11:08","slug":"trump-removes-official-overseeing-jobs-data-after-dismal-employment-report","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/39084\/","title":{"rendered":"Trump removes official overseeing jobs data after dismal employment report"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>President Donald Trump on Friday called for the firing of the head of the agency that produces the monthly jobs figures after a report showed hiring slowed in July and was much weaker in May and June than previously reported.<\/p>\n<p>WASHINGTON (AP) \u2014 President Donald Trump on Friday removed the head of the agency that produces the monthly jobs figures after a report showed hiring <a href=\"https:\/\/apnews.com\/article\/jobs-unemployment-economy-trump-federal-reserve-68a15f89d68793a6cf88a522ff33246c\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">slowed in July<\/a> and was much weaker in May and June than previously reported.<\/p>\n<p>Trump, in a post on his social media platform, alleged that the figures were manipulated for political reasons and said that Erika McEntarfer, the director of the Bureau of Labor Statistics, who was appointed by former President Joe Biden, should be fired. He provided no evidence for the charge. <\/p>\n<p>\u201cI have directed my Team to fire this Biden Political Appointee, IMMEDIATELY,\u201d Trump said on Truth Social. \u201cShe will be replaced with someone much more competent and qualified.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Trump later posted: \u201cIn my opinion, today\u2019s Jobs Numbers were RIGGED in order to make the Republicans, and ME, look bad.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>The charge that the data was faked is an explosive one that threatens to undercut the political legitimacy of the U.S. government\u2019s economic data, which has long been seen as the \u201cgold standard\u201d of economic measurement globally. Economists and Wall Street investors have long accepted the data as free from political bias. <\/p>\n<p>Trump\u2019s move to fire McEntarfer represented another extraordinary assertion of presidential power. He has wielded the authority of the White House to try to control the world\u2019s international trade system, media companies, America\u2019s top universities and Congress\u2019 constitutional power of the purse, among other institutions.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cFiring the Commissioner \u2026 when the BLS revises jobs numbers down (as it routinely does) threatens to destroy trust in core American institutions, and all government statistics,\u201d Arin Dube, an economist at the University of Massachusetts-Amherst, said on X. \u201cI can\u2019t stress how damaging this is.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>After Trump\u2019s initial post, Labor Secretary Lori Chavez-DeRemer said on X that McEntarfer was no longer leading the bureau and that William Wiatrowski, the deputy commissioner, would serve as the acting director.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI support the President\u2019s decision to replace Biden\u2019s Commissioner and ensure the American People can trust the important and influential data coming from BLS,\u201d Chavez-DeRemer said.<\/p>\n<p>Friday\u2019s <a href=\"https:\/\/www.bls.gov\/news.release\/pdf\/empsit.pdf\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">jobs report<\/a> showed that just 73,000 jobs were added last month and that 258,000 fewer jobs were created in May and June than previously estimated. The report suggested that the economy has sharply weakened during Trump\u2019s tenure, a pattern consistent with a slowdown in economic growth during the first half of the year and an increase in inflation during June that appeared to reflect the price pressures created by the president\u2019s tariffs.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWhat does a bad leader do when they get bad news? Shoot the messenger,\u201d Democratic Senate Leader Chuck Schumer of New York said in a Friday speech.<\/p>\n<p>McEntarfer was nominated by Biden in 2023 and became the Commissioner of the Bureau of Labor Statistics in January 2024. Commissioners typically serve four-year terms but since they are political appointees can be fired. The commissioner is the only political appointee of the agency, which has hundreds of career civil servants. <\/p>\n<p>The Senate confirmed McEntarfer to her post 86-8, with now Vice President JD Vance among the yea votes.<\/p>\n<p>Trump focused much of his ire on the revisions the agency made to previous hiring data. Job gains in May were revised down to just 19,000 from a previously revised 125,000, and for June they were cut to 14,000 from 147,000. In July, only 73,000 positions were added. The unemployment rate ticked up to a still-low 4.2% from 4.1%. <\/p>\n<p>\u201cNo one can be that wrong? We need accurate Jobs Numbers,\u201d Trump wrote. \u201cShe will be replaced with someone much more competent and qualified. Important numbers like this must be fair and accurate, they can\u2019t be manipulated for political purposes.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Trump has not always been so suspicious of the monthly jobs report and responded enthusiastically after the initial May figures came out on June 6 when it was initially reported that the economy added 139,000 jobs.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cGREAT JOB NUMBERS, STOCK MARKET UP BIG!\u201d Trump posted at the time.<\/p>\n<p>That estimate was later revised down to 125,000 jobs, prior to the most-recent revision down to just 19,000.<\/p>\n<p>The monthly employment report is one of the most closely-watched pieces of government economic data and can cause sharp swings in financial markets. The disappointing figure sent U.S. market indexes about 1.5% lower Friday. <\/p>\n<p>The revisions to the May and June numbers were quite large and surprising to many economists. At the same time, every monthly jobs report includes revisions to the prior two months\u2019 figures. Those revisions occur as the government receives more responses to its survey, which help provide a more complete picture of employment trends each month. <\/p>\n<p>In the past decade, companies have taken longer to respond, which may have contributed to larger monthly revisions. <\/p>\n<p>The monthly jobs report has long been closely guarded within the BLS, with early copies held in safes under lock and key to prevent any leaks or early dissemination. <\/p>\n<p>Copyright<br \/>\n                        \u00a9\u00a02025 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, written or redistributed.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"President Donald Trump on Friday called for the firing of the head of the agency that produces the&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":39085,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[13],"tags":[84,1371,9231,22616,56,54,55],"class_list":{"0":"post-39084","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-jobs","8":"tag-business","9":"tag-jobs","10":"tag-jobs-report","11":"tag-labor-commissioner","12":"tag-uk","13":"tag-united-kingdom","14":"tag-unitedkingdom"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/39084","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=39084"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/39084\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/39085"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=39084"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=39084"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=39084"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}