Today, Trump directed his team to fire the commissioner of the Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) because he didn’t like the jobs numbers they released. This is a move straight out of an autocratic playbook.
BLS is one of the most respected statistical agencies in the world, known for its methodological rigor, independence, and transparency. The president’s belief that the BLS commissioner personally “produced” the jobs numbers is preposterous and shows a complete misunderstanding of how government statistical agencies operate. These data are the product of careful work by hundreds of expert economists, statisticians, and civil servants following transparent, well-established methodologies.
Dr. Erika McEntarfer is a highly respected labor economist with deep expertise in labor market data. Like all BLS commissioners, she is bound by strict norms of nonpartisanship and statistical integrity. To fire her over an official data release—simply because the numbers do not serve a particular political narrative—is a deeply dangerous attack on the foundations of a functioning democracy.
And it’s not just undemocratic—it’s economically dangerous. The economy runs on reliable data. Businesses use these numbers to decide whether to hire or expand. The Federal Reserve uses them to set interest rates. State and local governments use them to plan budgets. If policymakers and the public can’t trust the data—or suspect the data are being manipulated—confidence collapses and reasonable economic decision-making becomes impossible. It’s like trying to drive a car blindfolded. This manufactured chaos will reduce business investment and consumer spending, making a recession—and soaring unemployment—far more likely in coming months.
The firing of the BLS commissioner follows a week of reporting that almost 20% of price inflation data was unable to be collected for the month of July, stemming from severe resource constraints. Between illegal firings, starving data agencies of needed resources, and now political intimidation, the U.S. looks set to run into the next economic downturn flying blind. The cost of this incompetence will be felt by working people first.