President Donald Trump ordered the firing of the Bureau of Labor Statistics commissioner Friday following a weak jobs report showing that hiring was stalling nationwide, with the exception of the nation’s veterans.
In a Truth Social post, Trump accused BLS Commissioner Dr. Erika McEntarfer, a Biden administration appointee, of fudging the numbers in the jobs reports last year to aid then-Vice President Kamala Harris in her unsuccessful campaign against him.
“We need accurate Jobs Numbers. I have directed my Team to fire this Biden Political Appointee, IMMEDIATELY. She will be replaced with someone much more competent and qualified,” Trump said in his Friday posting, although he has praised the BLS when the numbers were more to his liking.
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In a Truth Social post in March, Trump hailed the BLS monthly report showing that manufacturing jobs had increased by 10,000. “Great job, numbers are better than expected. It’s already working. Hang tough. We can’t lose,” Trump posted.
The drop in the unemployment rate for veterans from 3.7% in June to 3.0% in July was a rare bright spot Friday in the government’s monthly jobs report, which showed signs of weakness in what has been a resilient jobs market since the COVID-19 pandemic.
The jobless rate for the post-9/11 generation of veterans went down from 3.8% to 3.1%, while the overall unemployment rate nationwide ticked up from 4.1% to 4.2%.
But most of the attention on the latest Bureau of Labor Statistics report focused on the startling downward revisions in the number of jobs created in May and June.
The BLS jobs report for May said that 144,000 jobs had been added, but the revised BLS estimate was that only 19,000 jobs were added. For June, the original BLS estimate that 147,000 jobs were added was revised downward to just 14,000 jobs. In total, that meant that the economy added 258,000 fewer jobs in May and June than the BLS originally estimated.
The BLS report Friday said that 73,000 jobs were added in July, but Heather Long, corporate economist for Navy Federal Credit Union, said in a statement, “The labor market is deteriorating quickly. Only 73,000 jobs added in July and 75% of those jobs were in one sector: health care.”
“This is not a healthy job market. The economy needs certainty soon on tariffs,” Long said. “The longer this tariff whiplash lasts, the more likely this weak hiring environment turns into layoffs.”
In response to the BLS report, the Dow Jones Industrial Average was down 500 points at the market’s opening and by midday had lost more than 600 points.
Still, the ability of veterans to keep their jobs and find new ones in an economy in flux, as evidenced by the drop in their unemployment rates, was a tribute to the value employers place on hiring veterans, said Kevin Rasch, the Warriors to Work regional director at the Wounded Warrior Project and a former Navy commander.
“When you look at the trend,” he said, “we’re still finding employers who want to hire veterans” for the stability and commitment they bring to their jobs.
“Veterans are still managing to retain employment” despite the uncertainty threatening to drag down the economy, Rasch added.
In its response to the BLS report, the Trump administration conceded that uncertainty over the tariffs and trade deals was having an impact on the economy, but predicted that the markets would soon settle down.
“The jobs report isn’t ideal — there’s no way around that,” Stephen Miran, chairman of the president’s Council of Economic Advisers, told CNN. But “we’re creating trade deals left and right,” which will lift some of the uncertainty over the tariffs.
“It’s gonna get better from here,” he said.
Related: Veteran Jobless Rate a Bright Spot as Outlook on Federal Jobs, Economy Turns Grim
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