3 months ago
24
Washington: US President Donald Trump ordered the dismissal of the country’s labour statistics commissioner following a shock employment report which he alleged, without evidence, was “rigged” for political purposes.
The Bureau of Labour Statistics found only 73,000 jobs were created in the world’s biggest economy in July, well below market expectations, and significantly revised down the figures for May and June.
President Donald Trump, leaving the White House for his New Jersey golf club on Friday, ordered the statistician be sacked.Credit: AP
“Larger than normal” revisions concluded only 19,000 jobs were created in May, not 144,000, and only 14,000 jobs were created in June, not 147,000. In total, the numbers were revised down by 258,000 over two months.
Trump – who spent much of the week saying the US was “the hottest country in the world” after gross domestic product figures showed the economy rebounded to grow 3 per cent in the June quarter – immediately went on the attack and ordered the sacking of the commissioner, Erika McEntarfer.
“I was just informed that our country’s ‘Jobs Numbers’ are being produced by a Biden Appointee, Dr. Erika McEntarfer … who faked the Jobs Numbers before the Election to try and boost Kamala’s chances of Victory,” Trump claimed on TruthSocial, citing previous corrections from 2024 when Biden was president.
“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. Important numbers like this must be fair and accurate, they can’t be manipulated for political purposes.”
Labour Secretary Lori Chavez-DeRemer, a member of Trump’s cabinet, confirmed the bureaucrat had been sacked.Credit: AP
Trump added that in his opinion the figures were “RIGGED” to make Republicans, himself included, look bad.
Despite the Department of Labour trumpeting the July jobs growth figure earlier in the day, Labour Secretary Lori Chavez-DeRemer promptly confirmed McEntarfer had been terminated following Trump’s orders, with the deputy commissioner now serving in an acting capacity.
“I agree wholeheartedly with [Trump] that our jobs numbers must be fair, accurate, and never manipulated for political purposes,” Chavez-DeRemer said on X.
“A recent string of major revisions have come to light and raised concerns about decisions being made by the Biden-appointed Labor Commissioner.”
Donald Trump fielded questions from reporters before leaving Washington for a golfing weekend in New Jersey.Credit: Bloomberg
She added that she supported the decision to sack the commissioner and said the US economy was booming thanks to Trump.
Major revisions to US employment reports are common, largely due to slow response rates to the bureau’s surveys. Once employers submit their payroll data, the figures for previous months are belatedly updated.
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“Firing the Commissioner ... when the BLS revises jobs numbers down (as it routinely does) threatens to destroy trust in core American institutions, and all government statistics,” Arin Dube, an economist at the University of Massachusetts-Amherst, said on X. “I can’t stress how damaging this is.”
McEntarfer’s sacking follows a well-established pattern by which Trump dismisses poor economic news as “fake” and asserts without evidence that the data has been manipulated by his political enemies.
Democratic Senate leader Chuck Schumer noted the commissioner was confirmed by the Senate in 2024 with bipartisan support, 86 votes to eight, including the vote of the now-vice president, J.D. Vance.
“It’s a classic Donald Trump,” Schumer said, accusing Trump of acting like a Soviet dictator. “When he gets the news he doesn’t like, he shoots the messenger.”
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Schumer said the revised figures were bad news for the economy and the president should take responsibility. “Firing her isn’t going to relieve the chaos that you’ve created with your ramshackle tariff regime,” he said.
“Shooting the messenger isn’t going to make the jobs that we’re losing in healthcare and clean energy – because of your so-called big, beautiful bill – come back.”
Though the unemployment rate ticked up from 4.1 per cent to 4.2 per cent, it remains low and within the same 0.2 percentage point band it has been in for more than a year.
Conservative political adviser Oren Cass of American Compass criticised Trump’s move, and said it made the employment data seem much worse than it really was.
“The president should not fire someone for delivering bad news, especially when the someone is a public servant and the news is public data. Not the way to lead or govern,” he said on X. “[He] should be taking a victory lap.”
With AP
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