President Donald Trump on Friday ordered the head of the Bureau of Labor Statistics to be fired hours after a surprising government report showed employment had dropped significantly in the past three months.
He attacked BLS commissioner Erica Mantelfer towards a society of truth. He reported that the country’s work was “produced by Biden’s appointees,” and claimed that he ordered his administration to end her.
“We need accurate work numbers,” Trump wrote. “She’ll be replaced by a more capable and qualified person. Such important figures must be fair and accurate. They cannot manipulate for political purposes.”
Management officials told NBC News shortly after the post that Mentarfer had actually been fired.
It was not immediately clear who would lead the agency. The BLS deputy director is Bill Wiertrowski, who took on a role during the Obama administration.
BLS on Friday morning reported that the US economy added just 73,000 jobs in July. He also said the numbers for May and June were revised to combine more than 200,000 jobs.
McEntarfer did not immediately respond to requests for comment.
President Joe Biden nominated Mantelfer in July 2023 and was confirmed in the Senate in January 2024 with an 86-8 vote (with no six members vote). She received overwhelming bipartisan support in the vote.
McEntarfer spent much of her career in the federal government. For the past 20 years, she has worked for the Census Bureau, the Treasury Department, and the White House Economic Advisors Council.
Trump claimed without evidence that the commissioner “falsified the number of jobs to increase the likelihood of Kamala’s victory before the election.”
BLS routinely revises economic data such as job reports, GDP figures, and inflation data. Data collection is often delayed due to the size of the US economy and the rate of responses to the surveys that BLS collects this data. However, that delay does not mean fraud or operation.
Politicization of economic data and potential interference by political appointees are common in non-democratic countries such as Russia, Venezuela, and China.
Erosion of reliable data can affect businesses, consumers, lenders and policy makers. Historically, US economic data has been considered gold standard due to the independence normally given to the institutions that collect it.
Agents investigate US businesses and consumers by contacting them online and by mail via telephone, telephone, or in-person visits. Use the answers received through these methods to generate reports for the public and government decision makers.
The Bureau of Labor Statistics is the main body that collects information about the country’s labor market and economy.
In a mission statement, the agency said it would “measure labour market activity, working conditions, price changes, and productivity to support public and private decision-making.”
The accuracy of government data collection is also a concern.
Last August, BLS said 818,000 jobs were born for 12 months more than initially thought.
At the same time, Trump, who recently resumed his attack on Federal Reserve Chairman Jerome Powell, said the central bank chief also “should be put out on pasture.”
Trump repeatedly pressured Powell to lower interest rates. But Powell says there is still a “long road to going to go to really understand” what the impact of the president’s tariffs will be.
“If it’s too early, you may not be completely locked inflation and you need to come back. It’s inefficient. If it’s too late, you can cause unnecessary damage to the labour market,” Powell said Wednesday.
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