Erika McEntarfer, the former commissioner of the Bureau of Labor Statistics, raised the alarm on political meddling in economic data collection.
“Economic data must be free from partisan influence,” McEntarfer said in her first public remarks since her sudden ousting by President Donald Trump last month. McEntarfer made the comments at an event on Tuesday at her alma mater, Bard College.
She compared BLS data to “traffic lights” and said that any manipulation of these reports could hurt people. This is because policymakers, investors, and businesses depend on this data to make decisions.
“Markets have to trust the data are not manipulated,” McEntarfer said. “Firing your chief statisticians for releasing data you do not like, it has serious economic consequences.”
“The list of countries that have gone down this route, it’s not a good list,” she said.
She added that steep and persistent cuts to the agency’s staff and budget made it harder to track the labor market and overall economic growth.
Last month, Trump fired McEntarfer following a disappointing jobs report. Trump said that the report, which showed the US had added about 250,000 fewer jobs than expected, had been manipulated to hurt him politically. BLS often revises its jobs reports.
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“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 wrote in a Truth Social post at the time. “Important numbers like this must be fair and accurate, they can’t be manipulated for political purposes.”
McEntarfer was appointed to the BLS in January 2024 by former President Joe Biden and confirmed by a bipartisan Senate vote.
Economists warned that Trump firing McEntarfer and raising doubts about BLS data could have poor consequences.
“Firing the head of the BLS is five-alarm intentional harm to the integrity of US economic data and the entire statistical system,” Jed Kolko, a senior fellow at the Peterson Institute for International Economics and former Undersecretary for Economic Affairs at the US Department of Commerce, wrote on X.
William Beach, a Trump-appointed former BLS commissioner, also condemned McEntarfer’s firing. He called his successor’s firing “a dangerous precedent.”
Last month, Trump nominated E.J. Antoni, a conservative economist at the Heritage Foundation, to serve as the next BLS commissioner. Antoni, whose appointment requires Senate confirmation, has previously been critical of the BLS and its reports. Antoni has no government experience.
