Trump orders firing of labour statistics commissioner after dismal employment report
on Friday ordered that the commissioner of the
US
Labour Department's Bureau of Labour Statistics be fired after data showed weaker than expected employment growth in July and large downward revisions to the prior two months' job counts.
Erika McEntarfer was nominated by Mr Trump's predecessor
Joe Biden
to serve in the role in 2023 and was confirmed by the US Senate the following year.
It was not immediately clear whether Ms McEntarfer, whom Mr Trump accused of faking the jobs numbers, had been fired.
'We need accurate Jobs Numbers. I have directed my Team to fire this Biden Political Appointee, IMMEDIATELY. She will be replaced with someone much more competent and qualified,' Mr Trump said in a post on Truth Social.
The US president claimed that Ms McEntarfer had 'faked' employment figures in the run-up to last year's election, in a bid to boost his Democrat rival Kamala Harris's chances of victory.
He insisted that the US economy was, in fact, 'BOOMING' on his watch.
There is no evidence to back Mr Trump's claims of data manipulation by the bureau, the statistical agency that compiles the closely watched employment report as well as consumer and producer price data.
The White House did not respond immediately to questions about Mr Trump's post.
His comments come at a time when the Trump administration's mass lay-offs of federal government workers have raised concerns about the quality of US economic data, long seen as the gold standard.
Earlier this year, commerce secretary
Howard Lutnick
disbanded two expert committees that worked with the government to produce economic statistics.
Mr Lutnick has also floated the idea of stripping out government spending from the gross domestic product report, claiming 'governments historically have messed with GDP'.
The bureau has already reduced data collection for its consumer price data and producer price reports.
Economists attributed the sharply slower job growth to Mr Trump's trade and immigration policies.
The report showed the US economy created only 73,000 jobs last month. Data for May and June were revised sharply down to show 258,000 fewer jobs created than had been previously reported. – Reuters
(c) Copyright Thomson Reuters 2025
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