Trump Fires BLS Commissioner Erika McEntarfer, Saying Jobs Numbers Were Rigged
On the morning of August 1, 2025, the Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS), part of the U.S. Department of Labor, released the July employment report in Washington, D.C. Hours later, President Donald Trump announced in a social media post that he had directed his team to fire the bureau's commissioner, Erika McEntarfer, saying the jobs numbers had been manipulated. The report showed that nonfarm payrolls rose by only 73,000 in July, while the gains for May and June were revised down by a combined 258,000.
The BLS report put the July unemployment rate at 4.2 percent, with 7.2 million people unemployed, both little changed from June; the unemployment rate has remained in a narrow range of 4.0 to 4.2 percent since May 2024. Health care added 55,000 jobs in July, while federal government employment fell by 12,000 and is down 84,000 since its peak in January. Average hourly earnings for private nonfarm workers rose 0.3 percent to $36.44, up 3.9 percent from a year earlier.
The revisions were larger than usual. May's gain was revised down by 125,000, from 144,000 to 19,000, and June's down by 133,000, from 147,000 to 14,000, leaving the two months a combined 258,000 lower than previously reported. The bureau notes that monthly revisions result from additional reports received from businesses and government agencies and from the recalculation of seasonal factors.
In his post, Trump wrote that the country needs accurate jobs numbers and that he had directed his team to fire the Biden appointee immediately, saying she would be replaced with someone much more competent and qualified, and that important numbers like this must be fair and accurate and cannot be manipulated for political purposes. In a follow-up post, Trump said the day's jobs numbers were rigged to make Republicans and himself look bad, and he accused McEntarfer of overstating job growth before the 2024 election. He offered no evidence that the data had been manipulated. Speaking to reporters the same day, Trump said he fired her because he believed her numbers were wrong.
Labor Secretary Lori Chavez-DeRemer said on social media that day that she agreed wholeheartedly with the president that jobs numbers must be fair, accurate and never manipulated for political purposes. She announced that Deputy Commissioner William Wiatrowski would serve as acting commissioner while the department searched for a permanent replacement.
McEntarfer was the bureau's 16th commissioner. Nominated by President Joe Biden in 2023 and confirmed by the Senate 86 to 8 in January 2024 to a four-year term that would have run to 2028, she had served in the federal government for more than 20 years, including as an economist at the Census Bureau and the Treasury Department. William Beach, a former commissioner appointed by Trump in his first term, said publicly that the firing was groundless, set a dangerous precedent and undermined the bureau's statistical mission.
(Source: U.S. Department of Labor)
Source: U.S. Department of Labor
Published by GSM · USA (original Chinese edition)
Photo: 图：位于华盛顿特区的美国劳工部总部 Frances Perkins 大楼正门，门楣刻有 DEPARTMENT OF LABOR 字样，劳工统计局隶属劳工部。美国劳工部摄，CC BY 2.0，经 Wikimedia Commons。 / Photo: The entrance of the Frances Perkins Building, headquarters of the U.S. Department of Labor in Washington, D.C.; the Bureau of Labor Statistics is part of the department. Photo by the U.S. Department of Labor, CC BY 2.0, via Wikimedia Commons.
