New York [US], August 2: CNN reported on August 2 that President Donald Trump had fired the Director of the US Bureau of Labor Statistics, Erika McEntarfer, accusing the official of manipulating data in the monthly employment report for political purposes.
The agency's latest report on August 1 showed that the US economy added 73,000 jobs in July, much lower than expected.
May's jobs numbers were revised down from 144,000 to just 19,000, while June's numbers were also revised down from 147,000 to 14,000. That's a total of 258,000 fewer jobs than previously reported.
After adjustment, the report showed the pace of hiring for the three-month period was the slowest since the 2020 Covid-19 pandemic recession.
"In my opinion, today's jobs numbers were rigged to make me and the Republicans look bad," President Trump wrote on the social network Truth Social.
According to CNN, revisions to the numbers are normal. The BLS has traditionally released monthly employment estimates based on incomplete data and then revised them twice after each report. There is also another revision each year in February.
However, President Trump said this adjustment was wrong. "Ms. McEntarfer said only 73,000 jobs were added (a shock) but more importantly, they made a big mistake, 258,000 jobs were lost in the previous 2 months. Similar things happened in the first part of the year, always negative. The economy is booming under Trump," the leader wrote.The White House chief accused Ms. McEntarfer of falsifying data ahead of the 2024 presidential election to boost the chances of victory for the Democratic candidate, then-Vice President Kamala Harris .
Ms. McEntarfer and Ms. Harris have not commented on the allegations.
The BLS is the U.S. federal agency responsible for compiling, processing, analyzing, and distributing key economic and labor statistics to the public, Congress, and the government. Ms. McEntarfer was approved by the U.S. Senate to head the BLS in January 2024 for a four-year term with an 86-8 vote. Deputy Director William Wiatrowski will temporarily run the BLS until President Trump nominates a replacement for Ms. McEntarfer.
Source: Thanh Nien Newspaper
