After fresh data showed mounting flaws in the American labor market, President Donald Trump declared on Friday that he had fired a top economic official, accusing her of manipulating employment data for political ends.
Hours after the July jobs report was released, revealing that job growth was below forecasts, Commissioner of Labor Statistics Erika McEntarfer was fired. Furthermore, hiring data adjustments for the previous two months showed the worst performance since the Covid-19 pandemic.
Trump was unreserved in his attack, accusing McEntarfer of falsifying employment statistics to increase Democrats’ chances of winning the most recent presidential election.
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McEntarfer stated that just 73,000 jobs were added (a surprise!), but more significantly, Trump commented on Truth Social that they had made a huge error by reducing employment by 258,000 jobs over the previous two months, citing July’s updated employment data.
He stated that similar incidents, always in a bad sense, occurred throughout the first half of the year.
Trump maintained, however, that the American economy is still robust and growing under his direction.
The Department of Labor reports that 73,000 new jobs were created nationwide in July, while the unemployment rate increased slightly from 4.1% to 4.2%. Notably, May’s hiring numbers were drastically reduced from 144,000 to 19,000, and June’s numbers dropped from 147,000 to 14,000 as well.
These figures highlight ongoing instability following the economic impact of the epidemic and show a decline in comparison to former years.
Trump’s wide tariffs have also had an impact on the overall state of the economy, making companies more wary about hiring and investing.
Increased operating costs for many businesses have led them to pass those costs on to customers as a result of rising tariff levels on a variety of imports, such as steel, aluminum, and cars.
According to economists, the Federal Reserve is under more pressure to consider interest rate decreases as a result of the dismal jobs report.
This jobs report is revolutionary. Heather Long, chief economist at Navy Federal Credit Union, stated that the labor market is rapidly deteriorating. She pointed out that the health care industry accounted for 75% of those positions [in July].
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The economy has only added 35,000 jobs a month on average since May, indicating a persistent trend of slow employment growth.
Long continued, “The economy needs tariff certainty soon.” Layoffs are more likely to result from this poor hiring climate the longer this tariff whiplash persists.
It’s still unclear if relief is imminent. Trump announced a new wave of high tariffs on several nations Thursday night, which will go into force in a week.
