Both former President Donald Trump and his chief economic advisor, Kevin Hassett, have pumped the brakes on all this optimism over the newfangled jobs report. This monthly report, produced by the Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS), showed a much lighter pace of job growth than expected. Yet Trump took that advice when he decided to fire BLS Commissioner Erika McEntarfer just this past Monday. This action has garnered both high-fives and howls of protest.
On Friday, Trump took to social media to assert that the jobs report, which offered a bleak outlook on the economy, was “RIGGED.” He claimed the changes to the figures in the last few months were “FABRICATED.” He claimed this was all done to bury the lead on an important Republican win! This rhetoric echoes Trump’s past attempts to undermine trust in official data following his loss in the 2020 presidential election.
Hassett, the National Economic Council Director, joined in on Trump’s wishful thinking. He recommended that a replacement plan for the current BLS economists/statisticians be an immediate priority to safeguard the integrity of economic data. He stated, “To make sure that the data are as transparent and as reliable as possible, we’re going to get highly qualified people in there that have a fresh start and a fresh set of eyes on the problem.”
In an apparent effort to retroactively justify McEntarfer’s dismissal, both Trump and Hassett have criticized the BLS’s work. Hassett added, “All across the US government there have been people who have been saboteurs of Trump everywhere they can. Further, this statement continues the more alarming theme of an anti-opposition federal agency narrative.
William Beach, a former BLS chief appointed by Trump, criticized McEntarfer’s firing, arguing that she played no role in manipulating data collection. Beach explained that she does not access the data until just before its public release, stating, “The commissioner doesn’t do anything to collect the numbers.”
I know that BLS data gets better with time. This occurs because the private sector yields new data on their recruiting and separating activities. Trump’s White House has tried to discredit the accuracy of these reports.