‘We need accurate jobs numbers,’ the president said on Truth Social.
President Donald Trump announced on Aug. 1 that he has directed the termination of the commissioner of the Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS).
Writing in a Truth Social post shortly after the July jobs report, Trump suggested that BLS Commissioner Erika McEntarfer manipulated the job data and accused her of falsifying the employment numbers before the 2024 election “to try and boost [2024 presidential candidate Kamala Harris’s] chances of victory.”
“We need accurate jobs numbers. I have directed my team to fire this Biden political appointee, immediately,“ the president said. ”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,” he added.
His comments come as the BLS reported that the U.S. economy added 73,000 new jobs last month, below the consensus forecast. The federal agency also revised the May and June numbers lower by a combined 258,000, which places the three-month employment growth rate at just 35,000.
In the first six months of 2025, downward revisions have totaled 461,000.
Trump also criticized Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell, stating that he “should also be put ‘out to pasture.’”
The BLS’s data collection methods have come under fire in recent years amid the routine and sizable revisions to employment data.
Last year, following the Department of Labor’s annual benchmark revisions, which found that U.S. job creation was overstated by 818,000, GOP lawmakers stated that the administration had been “seemingly cooking the books to boost public support” ahead of the election.
“Given the numerous downward jobs revisions published by the [BLS] over the last two years, we are seeking information regarding the BLS’s methodology in estimating job numbers in addition to why the BLS has failed to accurately assess changes in labor participation,” a group of Republican senators, led by Sen. Roger Marshall (R-Md.), said in a letter to the Department of Labor.
The White House’s efforts to reduce government spending have weighed on the bureau’s activities.
By Andrew Moran
