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Business & Economy
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Business & Economy
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Trump axes labor statistics chief after bad jobs report
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President Trump ordered the firing of the commissioner of the Bureau of Labor Statistics following a dismal jobs report he blamed squarely on the appointee of former President Biden.
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Trump claimed without evidence on Truth Social that the commissioner, Erika McEntarfer, had “faked the Jobs Numbers” before the 2024 election in order to boost former Vice President Kamala Harris’s White House bid.
Trump cited labor statistics revisions during the Biden administration that boosted job numbers ahead of the election. The jobs report released Friday showed a significant downturn during Trump’s administration in May and June, indicating the U.S. added 258,000 fewer jobs over those months than had initially been reported.
The move was met with outrage from Democrats.
“That’s some weird Soviet s‑‑‑,” Sen. Martin Heinrich (D-N.M.) said. “Blaming the messenger? Nothing’s ever his fault.”
Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.) posted on social media that, “Instead of helping people get good jobs, Donald Trump just fired the statistician who reported bad jobs data that the wanna-be king doesn’t like.”
McEntarfer was nominated by Biden in 2023 and confirmed by the Senate in 2024 as the 16th commissioner of the Bureau of Labor Statistics, which is part of the Department of Labor.
She was confirmed in the Senate in a bipartisan 86-8 vote. Notably, Vice President J.D Vance and Secretary of State Marco Rubio, who were both senators at the time, voted in favor of her nomination.
The Hill’s Alex Gangitano has more here.
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Welcome to The Hill’s Business & Economy newsletter, I’m Aris Folley — covering the intersection of Wall Street and Pennsylvania Avenue.
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Key business and economic news with implications this week and beyond:
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President Trump’s economic pitch took a serious hit Friday after the latest federal jobs report revealed stunning weakness in the labor market.
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President Trump on Friday accused the head of the Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) Erika McEntarfer of faking jobs numbers, directing his team to fire the former President Biden appointee.
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Labor Secretary Lori Chavez-DeRemer praised President Trump’s decision to fire the head of the Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) after the Friday release of the July jobs report.
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Sen. Susan Collins (R-Maine), chair of the Senate Appropriations Committee, announced Friday afternoon that the chamber will be moving forward to pass its first tranche of government funding bills for fiscal 2026.
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Branch out with more stories from the day:
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WASHINGTON (AP) — U.S. hiring is slowing sharply as President Donald Trump’s erratic and radical trade …
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Business and economic news we’ve flagged from other outlets:
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Murky Pledges of Investment Cast Shadow on Trump’s Trade Deals (NYT)
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Google has dropped more than 50 DEI-related organizations from one of its funding lists (CNBC)
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Opinions related to business and economic issues submitted to The Hill:
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You’re all caught up. See you tomorrow!
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