President Donald Trump on Friday ordered the firing of Dr. Erika McEntarfer, the Commissioner of the Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS), igniting a political and economic firestorm as the administration grappled with unexpectedly weak jobs numbers that included a large downward revision of the last two months of jobs data. “I have directed my Team to fire this Biden Political Appointee, IMMEDIATELY,” Trump said on social media Friday.
The decision followed the release of July’s employment report, which showed that only 73,000 nonfarm payroll jobs were added to the U.S. economy—far below economist forecasts. The report also included sharp downward revisions to the previous two months, with 258,000 jobs stripped from earlier estimates and unemployment ticking up to 4.2%.
