The monthly jobs report is already closely-watched on Wall Street and in Washington but has taken on a new importance after President Donald Trump on Friday fired the official who oversees it.
Trump claimed that June’s employment figures were “RIGGED” to make him and other Republicans “look bad,” yet he provided no evidence. The firing of Erika McEntarfer, the commissioner of the Bureau of Labor Statistics appointed by former President Joe Biden, followed Friday’s jobs report that showed hiring was weak in July and had come to nearly a standstill in May and June, right after Trump rolled out sweeping tariffs.
Economists and Wall Street investors have long considered the job figures reliable, with share prices and bond yields often reacting sharply when they are released. Yet Friday’s revisions were unusually large — the largest, outside of a recession, in five decades. And the surveys used to compile the report are facing challenges from declining response rates.
Nonetheless, that hasn’t led most economists to doubt them.
Heather Boushey, a top economic adviser in the Biden White House, noted that without Trump’s firing of McEntarfer, there would be more focus on last week’s data, which points to a slowing economy.