.-') _ .-') _ | |
( OO ) ) ( OO ) ) | |
.-----. ,--./ ,--,' ,--./ ,--,' | |
' .--./ | \ | |\ | \ | |\ | |
| |('-. | \| | )| \| | ) | |
/_) |OO )| . |/ | . |/ | |
|| |`-'| | |\ | | |\ | | |
(_' '--'\ | | \ | | | \ | | |
`-----' `--' `--' `--' `--' | |
lite.cnn.com - on gopher - inofficial | |
ARTICLE VIEW: | |
Former BLS commissioner says firing her was a ‘dangerous’ step for | |
the US economy | |
By Elisabeth Buchwald, CNN | |
Updated: | |
7:23 PM EDT, Tue September 16, 2025 | |
Source: CNN | |
When the July jobs report was first released on August 1, it didn’t | |
feel any different for Erika McEntarfer, former commissioner at the | |
Bureau of Labor Statistics, compared to when other employment reports | |
came out. | |
But that quickly changed after she learned that President Donald Trump | |
had taken to Truth Social to publicly announce her firing. Soon, she | |
was on her way to “becoming a household name,” McEntarfer said | |
Tuesday in her first public remarks since her departure from the BLS. | |
McEntarfer was fired that the US economy added just 73,000 jobs in July | |
and the monthly totals for May and June were revised down by a combined | |
258,000 jobs. Trump claimed, without evidence, that the disappointing | |
jobs report had been “rigged.” | |
Her lecture at the Levy Economics Institute at Bard College, her alma | |
mater, comes as questions swirl about the integrity of government data | |
as Trump has sought greater control of the agency and tariffs appear to | |
be hurting the economy. | |
Speaking to a crowd of fellow alumni, students, professors and | |
reporters, McEntarfer said Tuesday that she only learned of her firing | |
when a reporter reached out to her for comment following a Trump post | |
on Truth Social announcing her termination. She didn’t believe it at | |
first, she said. | |
Then she noticed an earlier email from the White House Presidential | |
Personnel Office stating only the following: | |
“Dr. McEntarfer: On behalf of President Donald J. Trump, I am writing | |
to inform you that your position at the Bureau of Labor Statistics has | |
been terminated, effective immediately. Thank you for your service.” | |
“Firing your chief statistician is a dangerous step,” she said. | |
“That’s an attack on the independence of an institution arguably as | |
important as the Federal Reserve for economic stability. It has serious | |
economic consequences, but that they would do this with no warning — | |
it made no sense.” | |
“Messing with economic data is like messing with the traffic lights | |
and turning the sensors off. Cars don’t know where to go, traffic | |
backs up at intersections,” she said, a nod to the concerns many | |
economists have raised since her firing. | |
Before her firing, McEntarfer’s biggest concern with the monthly jobs | |
reports and other economic reports the BLS publishes was funding | |
shortfalls that made it harder to conduct surveys that inform the data, | |
she said. That’s been especially true as response rates to the | |
agency’s surveys have fallen. But that has not impacted the accuracy | |
of the data, she said. | |
“But after the events of the last six weeks, I’m afraid we have to | |
fear for the (data) dependence of the agencies themselves.” | |
Entirely caught off guard | |
Before the release of any jobs report during her time at the BLS, | |
McEntarfer and her team would brief members of the White House a day | |
before the data is made public. | |
McEntarfer said she “did not get the sense” that anything was wrong | |
when briefing the White House last month. She fielded what she | |
considers “normal” questions when economists are trying to make | |
sense of new data, she said. | |
She acknowledged that the downward jobs revisions from prior months’ | |
employment reports, which were included in the July jobs report, were | |
unusually large. This prompted her to devote more time during the | |
briefing to explain why that was the case, she said. | |
Such revisions, however, are considered a feature and not a bug of | |
economic data, which is frequently revised – especially as more | |
comprehensive information becomes readily available – to provide a | |
clearer, more accurate picture of the dynamics in play. | |
On Tuesday, McEntarfer said that late-responding firms were the | |
principal reason for the negative revision that preceded her firing. | |
That dynamic was explained by McEntarfer and her staff during their | |
monthly pre-jobs report briefing to the White House. | |
She told White House economists that revisions as large as the May and | |
June jobs data tend to occur “when the economy slows,” she said. | |
During the briefing, White House officials asked her: Was the skew | |
disproportionately among small firms, and when was the last time this | |
happened? | |
“It was a pretty broad-based, negative skew,” she said, noting that | |
the last time this happened was in the early months of the pandemic. | |
Businesses were likely responding late to the survey “because | |
they’re just too busy trying to stay alive.” | |
This story has been updated with additional context and developments. | |
<- back to index |