Trump fires labor statistics head after bad jobs report

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President Donald Trump on Friday ordered the firing of the head of the Bureau of Labor Statistics, hours after a stunning government report showed that hiring had slowed down significantly over the past three months.

Taking to Truth Social, he attacked Erika McEntarfer, the commissioner of the BLS. He claimed that the country's jobs reports "are being produced by Biden appointee" and ordered his administration to terminate her.

"We need accurate Jobs Numbers," Trump wrote. "She will be replaced with someone much more competent and qualified. Important numbers like this must be fair and accurate, they can’t be manipulated for political purposes."

He intensified his attack in a later post, writing: "In my opinion, today’s Jobs Numbers were RIGGED in order to make the Republicans, and ME, look bad." He didn't cite any evidence for his claim.

The BLS on Friday morning reported that the U.S. economy added just 73,000 jobs in July, well below estimates. It also said it had revised the May and June numbers and they turned out to be lower than previously announced by more than 200,000 jobs.

The firing sent shockwaves through Washington, which has already been rattled by waves of terminations through the nearly seven months of Trump's second administration.

"President Trump is once again destroying the credibility of our government by firing expert and nonpartisan officials because he does not like the facts that they present," said Max Stier, the CEO of the non-partisan Partnership for Public Service. "Governments that go down this path find themselves in ugly territory very quickly."

President Joe Biden nominated McEntarfer in July 2023 and was confirmed by the Senate in an 86-to-8 vote (with six members not voting) in January 2024. She received overwhelming bipartisan support in the vote.

Vice President JD Vance was among the Republicans who voted to confirm her.

William Martin, communications director to Vance, said the vice president stands by the president's decision.

Former Labor Department officials slammed Trump's decision to fire McEntarfer.

“The work is done largely by expert career staff who do their jobs with care and pride," Julie Su, who worked as Labor secretary during the Biden administration, told NBC News. "Career staff who have also been attacked and vilified by this president.”

The BLS routinely revises economic data such as the jobs report, GDP figures and inflation data. Due to the scale of the U.S. economy and response rates to BLS surveys, there can often be lags in data collection. But that lag does not imply any wrongdoing or manipulation.

"Nobody is faking numbers," former Labor Department chief of staff Daniel Koh wrote on X. "Revisions happen all the time."

Trump has previously praised the BLS reports, when they were favorable to his administration in April, May and June.

In May, the White House said that April's jobs report "proved" that Trump was "revitalizing" the economy. In June, Trump posted, "GREAT JOBS NUMBERS" on Truth Social.

In March, standing in the Oval Office, Trump brought up "how good some of these numbers are."

President Donald Trump announced Monday that he planned to nominate E.J. Antoni, the chief economist at the conservative Heritage Foundation, as the new commissioner of the Bureau of Labor Statistics.

Trump said in a Truth Social post that "E.J. will ensure that the Numbers released are HONEST and ACCURATE."

Antoni’s planned nomination comes after Trump fired former commissioner Erika McEntarfer hours after a weaker-than-expected jobs report on Aug. 1. Trump said, without evidence, that the jobs report for July was “RIGGED in order to make the Republicans, and ME, look bad.”

Antoni did not immediately respond to NBC News’ request for comment Monday.

Steve Bannon, a senior adviser to Trump in his first term, had been pushing hard for Antoni’s nomination. Antoni, a contributor to the Project 2025 policy rubric, has been a longtime skeptic of BLS data. On Bannon’s podcast last week, Antoni called for McEntarfer to be fired shortly before Trump pulled the trigger.

As chief economist at the Heritage Foundation, Antoni has written a number of pieces for the think tank that are highly complimentary of the Trump administration. One of his recent reports said that the June jobs report, before it was revised, was a “home run” for the president.

Multiple former BLS commissioners said after McEntarfer's firing that the head of labor statistics does not have a role in compiling the jobs report and is only briefed on its figures shortly before it is released to the public.

In that report, the BLS reported that the U.S. economy added just 73,000 jobs in July. The agency also said it had revised the May and June numbers and that they turned out to be lower than previously announced, by more than 200,000 jobs.

The BLS routinely revises economic data such as the jobs report, gross domestic product figures and inflation data. Due to the scale of the U.S. economy and response rates to BLS surveys, there can often be lags in data collection. But that lag does not imply any wrongdoing or manipulation.

The data that the bureau produces is massively important to businesses, policy makers and government agencies because without it, the true condition of the U.S. economy might be harder to determine.

Jason Furman, who served as chairman of the Council of Economic Advisers in the White House under President Barack Obama, said Monday that "E.J. Antoni is completely unqualified to be BLS commissioner. He is an extreme partisan and does not have any relevant experience."

"He would be a break from decades of nonpartisan technocrats," Furman added in a post on X.

Rachel Bovard, vice president of programs at the Conservative Partnership Institute, called Antoni “whip smart, passionate, and committed to excellence — three qualities that will turn the BLS from an agency that’s apparently still playing catch up with accurate data to one which is transparent, reliable, and correct.”