President Donald Trump announced Friday afternoon via social media that he has instructed his administration to fire Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) Commissioner Erika McEntarfer, following the release of a disappointing July jobs report. The report, released Friday morning, revealed the U.S. economy added just 73,000 jobs last month—far below expectations—while the unemployment rate ticked up to 4.2%.
However, it was the dramatic downward revisions to the previous months’ employment data that sparked the strongest reaction. The BLS revised May’s job gains from 144,000 to just 19,000, and June’s from 147,000 to a mere 14,000—removing a combined 258,000 jobs from earlier estimates. In its official release, the BLS explained the changes were due to “additional reports received from businesses and government agencies since the last published estimates and from the recalculation of seasonal factors.”
Economists broadly interpreted the data as a sign the labor market is weaker than previously understood. “The ‘solid’ state of the labor market described by the FOMC earlier this week looks more questionable after the July employment report,” wrote Wells Fargo senior economist Sarah House. The revisions bring the three-month average of job gains down to just 35,000.
Trump, clearly incensed, accused the BLS of political manipulation, writing on Truth Social: “Important numbers like this must be fair and accurate, they can’t be manipulated for political purposes.” He also referenced the February benchmark revision to 2024’s jobs data, which showed payrolls had been overstated by 818,000 jobs in the previous year. “The Economy is BOOMING under ‘TRUMP’ despite a Fed that also plays games, this time with Interest Rates, where they lowered them twice, and substantially, just before the Presidential Election, I assume in the hopes of getting ‘Kamala’ elected – How did that work out? Jerome ‘Too Late’ Powell should also be put ‘out to pasture.’”
The Federal Reserve, which left rates unchanged this week at 4.25%-4.5%, has also drawn Trump’s ire. On Friday, Fed Governors Chris Waller and Michelle Bowman—both of whom voted for rate cuts—publicly highlighted concerns that the Fed might be underestimating labor market softness.
Pump Radar
Stock Alerts