President Donald Trump said Monday that the lackluster July job report was “rigged” and vowed to appoint a new statistician to oversee the Bureau of Labor Statistics.
Trump’s criticism of the monthly jobs report came after it found that just 73,000 jobs were added to the economy in July, and that previous reports had significantly overcounted job growth. In response, Trump fired Bureau of Labor Statistics Commissioner Erika McEntarfer on Friday, saying that she had manipulated the numbers for political purposes.
“Last weeks Job’s Report was RIGGED, just like the numbers prior to the Presidential Election were Rigged. That’s why, in both cases, there was massive, record setting revisions, in favor of the Radical Left Democrats,” Trump posted on Truth Social on Monday morning. “Those big adjustments were made to cover up, and level out, the FAKE political numbers that were CONCOCTED in order to make a great Republican Success look less stellar!!! I will pick an exceptional replacement. Thank you for your attention to this matter.”
Trump told reporters on Sunday that he would name a replacement for McEntarfer sometime in the next three to four days.
“We had no confidence. The numbers were ridiculous,” he said.
In addition to July job growth coming in lower than what had been projected by economists, the reports from May and June were revised down by 258,000 jobs. The Bureau of Labor Statistics described these revisions as “larger than normal.”
On Sunday, National Economic Council Director Kevin Hassett pointed to the massive revisions made to the jobs report within the last year as justification for the firing. He specifically referred to the 818,000 downward jobs revision that came in August 2024, covering the time from March 2023 to March 2024.
“Well, I mean, the revisions are hard evidence,” Hassett replied. “For example, there was an 818,000 revision making the Joe Biden job record a lot worse that came out after he withdrew from the presidential campaign. There have been a bunch of patterns that could make people wonder. And I think the most important thing for people to know is that it’s the president’s highest priority that the data be trusted and that people get to the bottom of why these revisions are so unreliable.”