Kevin Hassett defends Trump firing labor statistic commissioner
National Economic Council Director Kevin Hassett defended President Donald Trump’s decision to fire the head of the Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS), Erika McEntarfer, following a jobs report that showed weaker-than-expected employment growth and significant downward revisions to previous months’ job data. The July report indicated only 73,000 new jobs added, with the unemployment rate rising to 4.2%.Trump accused McEntarfer of manipulating job numbers before the 2024 election,an assertion Hassett addressed by highlighting the unprecedented size of revisions in recent job data-larger than any since 1968. During an interview on NBC’s Meet the Press, Hassett pointed to these revisions as evidence of issues with the data, while emphasizing the importance of ensuring the trustworthiness of BLS statistics. Although Hassett did not confirm further personnel changes at the BLS, he suggested that the agency needs new oversight.
Kevin Hassett defends Trump firing labor statistic commissioner
National Economic Council Director Kevin Hassett agreed with President Donald Trump‘s firing of the head of the Bureau of Labor Statistics due to the “massive revisions” of the last jobs report.
According to the latest BLS report, the economy added just 73,000 jobs in July and the unemployment rate rose a tenth of a percentage point to 4.2%. The report opted to revise job data downward from the data over the last two months.
After the report came out, Trump fired BLS Commissioner Erika McEntarfer, a Biden appointee. The president claimed McEntarfer “faked the jobs numbers” even before the November election, a claim Hassett addressed.
“What we’ve seen is massive revisions to the jobs numbers,” Hassett said on NBC News’s Meet the Press on Sunday. “Now we have a number that just came out, that the number for the month wasn’t so bad, but two months before were revised down more than had ever happened since 1968.”
Meet the Press host Kristen Welker pressed Hassett for “evidence” that the data was “rigged” as Trump claimed.
“The revisions are hard evidence. For example, there was a 818,000 revision making the Joe Biden record a lot worse after he withdrew from the presidential campaign. There have been a bunch of patterns that make people wonder,” Hassett said.
At the time of the jobs report after Biden dropped out of the 2024 race, the revisions represented 0.5% of total jobs.
TRUMP FIRES TOP LABOR STATISTICS OFFICIAL AFTER WEAK JOBS REPORT
“The most important thing for people to know is that it’s the president’s highest priority that the data be trusted and that people get to the bottom of why the revisions are so reliable,” Hassett added.
Hassett did not confirm or deny that more firings were to come, as some 40 people are behind publishing the report. He did suggest that “what we need is a fresh set of eyes at the BLS.”
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