{"id":311471,"date":"2025-08-02T08:39:11","date_gmt":"2025-08-02T08:39:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/311471\/"},"modified":"2025-08-02T08:39:11","modified_gmt":"2025-08-02T08:39:11","slug":"us-president-donald-trump-sacks-jobs-data-chief-after-dismal-employment-report","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/311471\/","title":{"rendered":"US president Donald Trump sacks jobs data chief after dismal employment report"},"content":{"rendered":"

By&nbspJerry Fisayo-Bambi<\/a>&nbspwith&nbspAP<\/b><\/p>\n

\n Published on 02\/08\/2025 – 9:02 GMT+2
\n \u2022Updated
\n 9:39\n <\/p>\n

\"\"
\n ADVERTISEMENT<\/p>\n

US President Donald Trump on Friday fired the head of the government agency in charge of monthly jobs data after a report showed hiring slowed in July and was much weaker in May and June than previously reported.<\/p>\n

In a post on his social media platform, Trump alleged that the figures by the Bureau of Labor Statistics were manipulated for political reasons, saying Erika McEntarfer, the director of the agency who was appointed by former President Joe Biden, should be fired. <\/p>\n

\u201cI have directed my Team to fire this Biden Political Appointee, IMMEDIATELY,\u201d Trump said on Truth Social. \u201cShe will be replaced with someone much more competent and qualified.\u201d<\/p>\n

The US leader later posted: \u201cIn my opinion, today\u2019s Jobs Numbers were RIGGED in order to make the Republicans, and ME, look bad.\u201d<\/p>\n

While Trump provided no evidence, the charge that the data was faked was seen as an explosive reaction that threatens to undercut the political legitimacy of the US government\u2019s economic data.<\/p>\n

For decades, Wall Street investors and economists have mostly believed the data to be free from political bias.<\/p>\n

McEntarfer’s removal condemned<\/p>\n

After Trump\u2019s initial post, Labor Secretary Lori Chavez-DeRemer said on X that McEntarfer was no longer leading the bureau and that William Wiatrowski, the deputy commissioner, would serve as the acting director.<\/p>\n

\u201cI support the President\u2019s decision to replace Biden\u2019s Commissioner and ensure the American People can trust the important and influential data coming from BLS,\u201d Chavez-DeRemer said.<\/p>\n

But condemnation soon followed. A group that included two former BLS commissioners, including William Beach, who was appointed by Trump to the position, berated McEntarfer\u2019s firing. They particularly objected to the charge that the data was altered for political reasons.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis rationale for firing Dr. McEntarfer is without merit and undermines the credibility of federal economic statistics that are a cornerstone of intelligent economic decision-making by businesses, families, and policymakers,\u201d the statement from the group, the Friends of BLS, said.<\/p>\n

Beach and former President Barack Obama’s BLS commissioner, Erica Groshen, signed the letter.<\/p>\n

\u201cFiring 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,\u201d Arin Dube, an economist at the University of Massachusetts-Amherst, said on X. \u201cI can\u2019t stress how damaging this is.\u201d<\/p>\n

Report shows 73,000 jobs were added in July<\/p>\n

Friday\u2019s jobs report showed that just 73,000 jobs were added last month and that 258,000 fewer jobs were created in May and June than previously estimated. <\/p>\n

The report indicated that the US economy has weakened significantly under Trump, following a slowdown in economic growth in the first half of the year and a spike in inflation in June, which appeared to be a result of the pressure on prices brought on by the president’s tariffs.<\/p>\n

\u201cNo one can be that wrong? We need accurate job numbers,\u201d Trump wrote. \u201cShe will be replaced with someone much more competent and qualified. Important numbers like this must be fair and accurate; they can\u2019t be manipulated for political purposes.\u201d<\/p>\n

Trump has not always been so suspicious of the monthly jobs report and responded enthusiastically after the initial May figures came out on 6 June, when it was initially reported that the economy added 139,000 jobs.<\/p>\n

\u201cGREAT JOB NUMBERS, STOCK MARKET UP BIG!\u201d Trump posted at the time.<\/p>\n

That estimate was later revised down to 125,000 jobs, and then further revised to just 19,000.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"By&nbspJerry Fisayo-Bambi&nbspwith&nbspAP Published on 02\/08\/2025 – 9:02 GMT+2 \u2022Updated 9:39 ADVERTISEMENT US President Donald Trump on Friday fired…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":311472,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3092],"tags":[51,32,113737,95999,897,16,15,49],"class_list":{"0":"post-311471","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-jobs","8":"tag-business","9":"tag-donald-trump","10":"tag-fired","11":"tag-job-loss","12":"tag-jobs","13":"tag-uk","14":"tag-united-kingdom","15":"tag-united-states"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@uk\/114958274694621067","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/311471","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=311471"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/311471\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/311472"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=311471"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=311471"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=311471"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}