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Following a disappointing jobs report on Friday, President Donald Trump said he plans to fire the Bureau of Labor Statistics commissioner.
Dr. Erika McEntarfer was appointed to the BLS in January 2024 by former President Joe Biden.
“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,” Trump wrote in a Truth Social post. “Important numbers like this must be fair and accurate, they can’t be manipulated for political purposes.”
The US economy added 73,000 jobs in July, missing the expected 106,000, and revisions showed that there were far fewer jobs created in May and June than initially reported.
Revisions to the jobs figures are not uncommon as BLS collects additional data in the months after the initial estimates, although the Bureau noted that this month’s revisions were “larger than normal.”
Unemployment ticked up to 4.2%. Labor force participation also declined, falling to 62.2% in July from 62.3%.
Trump wrote that the Friday jobs report was a “major mistake” and “The Economy is BOOMING under “TRUMP.”‘
The White House and Department of Labor did not immediately respond to Business Insider’s request for comment.
“Firing the head of the BLS is five-alarm intentional harm to the integrity of US economic data and the entire statistical system,” Jed Kolko, a senior fellow at the Peterson Institute for International Economics and former Under Secretary for Economic Affairs at the US Department of Commerce, wrote on X.
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