Trump's USA

US Job Numbers
Analysis: Is Like Flying Blindly Into a Storm

Losing access to reliable and transparent statistics about the world's largest economy would be dangerous. This is what Bloomberg's Kathryn Anne Edwards writes after the news that Donald Trump has fired Statistics Director Erika McEntarfer after Friday's weak jobs data. "The difference is like flying into a storm with instruments - and flying into the same storm completely blindly," she writes.

Edwards notes that the jobs report does not confirm Trump's image of a strong economy and concludes that the next head of the Bureau of Labor Statistics will either be a watchdog - or a lapdog.

The Washington Post's Julien Berman writes that Trump's actions undermine confidence in one of the government's most important statistical agencies. "It will sow doubt about the credibility of future statistics on employment, inflation, productivity and other key measures," he continues. 

Expert: Trump Wants to Scare Bureaucrats into Compliance

Donald Trump fired Statistics Director Erika McEntarfer for public opinion reasons but also to set an example for other bureaucrats. This is the assessment of US expert Jan Hallenberg, according to TT.

Friday's labor market data showed clearly weaker job growth than expected in July and in addition May and June were revised down by over a quarter of a million jobs in total. Trump claims that the figures are incorrect and manipulated for political purposes to portray him and the Republicans in a bad light.

- In this way he scares other bureaucrats, if they don't come up with good news, they know what's going to happen, Hallenberg tells the news agency.

US job figures
Trump to statistics director after jobs data: You're fired

Donald Trump is firing the director of the US Bureau of Labor Statistics after Friday's jobs data showed a clearly weaker-than-expected labor market, Reuters reports.

Erika L McEntarfer was appointed by President Joe Biden in 2023.

"We need accurate employment figures. I have ordered my team to immediately fire this Biden political appointee," Trump writes on Truth Social, adding that she will be replaced by someone "far more competent and qualified."

He also accuses McEntarfer of manipulating the figures "for political purposes."

73,000 new jobs were created outside the agricultural sector in the US in July, compared to the expected 110,000.

At the same time, the figures for May and June were adjusted down very sharply, totaling over a quarter of a million jobs.

According to NBC News, the Bureau of Labor Statistics confirms that McEntarfer has been fired.