President Donald Trump announced Friday that he ordered the firing of the Biden-appointed official responsible for compiling the country’s monthly jobs reports, accusing her of inflating job growth under the last administration to help Vice President Kamala Harris and downplaying gains during his current term.
“I was just informed that our country’s ‘Jobs Numbers’ are being produced by a Biden appointee, Dr. Erika McEntarfer, the Commissioner of Labor Statistics, who faked the Jobs Numbers before the Election to try and boost Kamala’s chances of victory,” Trump posted on Truth Social.
“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. Important numbers like this must be fair and accurate, they can’t be manipulated for political purposes,” Trump added.
“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 prior two months. Similar things happened in the first part of the year, always to the negative,” he wrote.
Trump also blasted the Federal Reserve, accusing it of attempting to sway the 2024 election.
“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?” he wrote. “Jerome ‘Too Late’ Powell should also be put ‘out to pasture.’ Thank you for your attention to this matter!”
Trump told reporters Friday evening he’s “always had a problem with these numbers.”
“I was thinking about it this morning, before the numbers that came out. I said, ‘Who is the person that does these numbers?’ And then they gave me stats about before the election,” Trump said. “We need people that we can trust.”
In 2016, during his first presidential campaign, Trump had claimed that the unemployment rate was far higher than what the BLS reported. In 2024, he accused the Biden administration of covering up economic weakness, citing the BLS’ own admission that it had overcounted jobs over a 12-month period, CNN reported.
Trump and his administration have also praised the BLS when its reports favored them. In March 2017, then-White House Press Secretary Sean Spicer said the jobs data was no longer “phony” after a strong report.
Just last month, current Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt celebrated on social media that Trump’s economy had beaten expectations in four straight labor reports.
Still, some economists condemned the president’s decision to terminate McEntarfer.
“It’s outrageous for anyone in government to question the integrity of the BLS,” said Jason Furman, a Harvard professor and former Obama economic adviser. “Accurate statistics are essential to the economy.”
Mark Zandi, chief economist at Moody’s Analytics, said the BLS maintains “the highest standard” of data quality and that its reports are “as accurate as it can be.”
“Anything that undermines that or even the perception of that high standard is deeply worrisome,” Zandi said. “I’ve never seen anything even close to this.”
But Labor Secretary Lori Chavez-DeRemer voiced support for the president’s decision.
“A recent string of major revisions have come to light and raised concerns about decisions being made by the Biden-appointed Labor Commissioner,” Chavez-DeRemer said in a post on X. “I support the President’s decision to replace Biden’s Commissioner and ensure the American People can trust the important and influential data coming from BLS.”