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Trump fires Bureau of Labor Statistics head
President Donald Trump fired the head of the Bureau of Labor Statistics after a report showed hiring slowed in July and was much weaker in May and June than previously reported. FOX 9's Leon Purvis has more.
(FOX 9) - President Donald Trump fired the head of the Bureau of Labor Statistics, Erika McEntarfer, after the latest job report showed hiring slowed in July and was weaker in May and June than previously reported. The White House is saying McEntarfer has a history of inaccuracies and incompetence.
White House on BLS numbers
What they're saying:
In a statement, the White House says, in part, "BLS had to revise down May and June job reports by a combined 258,000 jobs. These previous faulty jobs reports enabled the Federal Reserve to continue its disastrous policy of keeping interest rates high."
Job reports by numbers
What we know:
It’s not uncommon to see revised job numbers down. For example, looking at job numbers in June 2024, when Joe Biden was President, it started off with 206,000, but then the second revision showed 179,000, with the final being 118,000. Those numbers were slashed down to 88,0000 from where they started.
What they're saying:
One political expert believes President Trump did the firing to do something in reaction to the job numbers.
"Presidents are expected to do something about the economy. Now, they don't have a lot of tools, especially without Congress's support, and Trump wanted to be seen as having done something," said Howard Lavine, Professor of Political Science at the University of Minnesota.
Lavine adds, the Commissioner of the Bureau of Labor Statistics doesn’t have anything to do with creating job numbers, they’re just the messenger. Lavine believes whoever the replacement is, you can still trust the numbers.