US President Donald Trump fired Erika McEntarfer, the top of the Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS), on August 1.
“We’d like folks we are able to trust,” President Trump mentioned after he instructed officers to fireplace Erika McEntarfer, hours after a report confirmed US job progress cooled sharply during the last three months.
Who’s Eriak McEntarfer?
Erika McEntarfer was a longtime US authorities worker who bore the brunt of President Trump’s unhappiness with Friday’s jobs report. She had served as BLS head for a yr and a half.
Eriak McEntarfer’s profession: McEntarfer’s analysis focuses on job loss, retirement, employee mobility, and wage rigidity. She had beforehand labored on the Census Bureau’s Middle for Financial Research, the Treasury Division’s Workplace of Tax Coverage and the White Home Council of Financial Advisers in a nonpolitical function.
McEntarfer was nominated in 2023 to function BLS head, and the Senate Committee on Well being, Training, Labor and Pensions really helpful that her nomination go to the complete Senate for a vote, the Related Press reported. She was confirmed as BLS commissioner in January 2024 on a bipartisan 86-8 Senate vote.
Eriak McEntarfer’s training: McEntarfer holds a bachelor’s diploma in Social Science from Bard School and a doctoral diploma in economics from Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State College.
Why was Erika McEntarfer dismissed?
President Trump accused her of manipulating job knowledge for political functions.
On Friday morning, the BLS reported that the US economic system added simply 73,000 jobs in July, properly beneath estimates. It additionally mentioned it had revised the Might and June numbers they usually turned out to be decrease than beforehand introduced by greater than 200,000 jobs.
Trump reacted to the report, saying, “For my part, right now’s Jobs Numbers were RIGGED to be able to make the Republicans, and ME, look dangerous…”
He mentioned the “jobs numbers” have been produced by a “Biden Appointee”, Dr. Erika McEntarfer. He additionally accused her of faking “the Jobs Numbers earlier than the Election to try to enhance Kamala’s possibilities of Victory.”
“This is similar Bureau of Labor Statistics that overstated the Jobs Development in March 2024 by roughly 818,000 and, then once more, proper earlier than the 2024 Presidential Election, in August and September, by 112,000,” he mentioned.
Ordering his staff to fireplace “this Biden Political Appointee, IMMEDIATELY,” Trump mentioned, “She can be changed with somebody far more competent and certified.”
“Necessary numbers like this have to be truthful and correct, they will’t be manipulated for political functions,” Trump mentioned.
William Seaside, who was appointed BLS commissioner in 2019 by Trump and served till 2023 throughout President Joe Biden’s administration, known as McEntarfer’s firing “groundless” and mentioned in an X submit that it “units a harmful precedent and undermines the statistical mission of the Bureau.”
