BLS Delays Key Consumer Report After Trump Fires Agency Head

The U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) has come under fire after President Donald Trump dismissed Commissioner Erika McEntarfer just hours after the release of a weak July jobs report and major downward revisions to earlier data. Shortly afterward, the agency quietly postponed its annual consumer spending report — without giving any reason.

Fired by Email and an Unexpected Report Delay The notice appeared late Friday on the BLS website, stating only: “We will update users when more information is available.” Erika McEntarfer, nominated by President Joe Biden in 2023 and confirmed by the Senate the following year, was removed within hours of the weak jobs release. She learned of her dismissal via a two-line email from the White House. “Honestly, I didn’t believe it was real,” she said at a Bard College event. She only realized the firing was official after a reporter called her for comment on Trump’s post on X demanding her removal.

Trump Calls Numbers Rigged The July report, released on August 1, showed disappointing figures and downward revisions for the previous two months. Erika explained that late-reporting firms had dragged the data down, calling it unusual but not unprecedented. She added that other labor market indicators looked stable and not necessarily recessionary. Still, the reaction in the room was grim. By mid-afternoon, Trump declared publicly that the numbers were rigged and announced that Erika was no longer commissioner. Labor Secretary Lori Chavez-DeRemer echoed Trump’s line, calling the revisions “unexpected” and later writing on X that she fully supported the firing.

Data Revisions Under Fire Since McEntarfer’s removal, the BLS has issued further revisions, including a benchmark update on September 9. The White House blasted it as “another blunder in the long history of inaccuracies and incompetence at BLS.” Economists defended the revisions, noting they are standard practice as businesses frequently submit data late and the numbers are refined to improve accuracy. Trump has nominated EJ Antoni, chief economist at the Heritage Foundation and a staunch MAGA supporter, to lead the agency. His appointment has sparked criticism across the political spectrum, with at least one Republican senator expressing “serious reservations” about confirming him.

Longstanding Budget and Staffing Issues The BLS has been struggling for years with tight budgets and staff shortages. These issues predate Trump but have worsened during his second term. In recent years, the agency had to rely on statistical models to track inflation due to a lack of field staff, though it has only recently been allowed to hire more workers again. Last week, the Labor Department’s Office of Inspector General launched a review into the BLS’s “challenges” with data collection and employment revisions.

“A Dangerous Step,” Warns Fired Commissioner McEntarfer, who has over 20 years of federal service including at the Census Bureau, Treasury, and Biden’s Council of Economic Advisers, called Trump’s decision a “dangerous step” with potentially serious consequences for economic stability. “This is an attack on the independence of an institution arguably as important as the Federal Reserve for economic stability,” she said.

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