President Trump fires BLS commissioner after July jobs report

Yahoo

6 days ago

President Trump said in a social media post Friday afternoon that he directed members of his administration to fire Erika McEntarfer, commissioner of the Bureau of Labor Statistics, after the BLS on Friday published the July jobs report that contained what it called "larger than normal" revisions to data from May and June.
The July jobs report published Friday morning showed the US economy added 73,000 jobs last month, fewer than expected while the unemployment rate rose to 4.2%.
The most notable number to emerge from the report, however, was a downward revision to job gains in May and June which that saw 258,000 jobs taken away from what had been initially reported.
May's job gains were revised down to 19,000 from 144,000, while June's additions were cut to just 14,000 from the 147,000 initially reported.
In its release on Friday, the BLS said these revisions, "result from additional reports received from businesses and government agencies since the last published estimates and from the recalculation of seasonal factors."
Economists on Friday were near-unanimous in their view that July's jobs data and the revisions to May and June reflect a labor market that is far weaker than had been suggested by recent data and characterizations by some officials, notably Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell.
"The 'solid' state of the labor market described by the FOMC earlier this week looks more questionable after the July employment report," Wells Fargo senior economists Sarah House wrote in a note Friday.
Job gains over the last three months have now averaged just 35,000 after Friday's revisions.
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