President Donald Trump on Friday lashed out at the Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) and said he will fire its labor statistics chief after the U.S. economy added fewer jobs than expected in July and large downward revisions were made in the prior two months, which suggests the economy and labor market are weaker than previously believed.
The BLS reported on Friday that 74,000 jobs were added in July, well below the 110,000 estimate of economists polled by LSEG. The report also revised job growth in May and June downward. May’s gains were pared back by 125,000 to just 19,000 jobs created, while the June figures were revised down by 133,000 to just 14,000 jobs added that month.
According to the BLS, the last time a revision was down more than 133,000 was in March 2021, when it was revised down by 146,000 one year into the COVID pandemic.
Trump took to his Truth Social platform and wrote, “I was just informed that our Country’s ‘Jobs Numbers’ are being produced by a Biden Appointee, Dr. Erika McEntarfar, the Commissioner of Labor Statistics, who faked the Jobs Numbers before the Election to try and boost Kamala’s chances of Victory. This is the same Bureau of Labor Statistics that overstated the Jobs Growth in March 2024 by approximately 818,000 and, then again, right before the 2024 Presidential Election, in August and September, by 112,000. These were Records – No one can be that wrong?”
“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 continued.
“Important numbers like this must be fair and accurate, they can’t be manipulated for political purposes,” the president wrote. “McEntarfer said there were only 73,000 Jobs added (a shock!) but, more importantly, that a major mistake was made by them, 258,000 Jobs downward, in the two prior months. Similar things happened in the first part of the year, always to the negative.”
