Experts slam Trump's firing of labor statistics chief
The department on Friday released the employment figures in non-farm sectors with massive downward corrections in May and June.
Trump accused the department of politically manipulating the data, claiming that they were "RIGGED in order to make the Republicans, and ME, look bad." He said he had given an order to fire the commissioner of the Bureau of Labor Statistics.
US media outlets reported that the department acknowledged the commissioner of the Bureau of Labor Statistic's dismissal.
A group that numbers economic experts among its members, including the predecessor who was appointed during Trump's first term, issued a statement condemning the president's decision.
The statement says the rationale for firing the commissioner "undermines the credibility of federal economic statistics that are a cornerstone of intelligent economic decision-making." It also describes US official statistics as the "gold standard globally."
Ernie Tedeschi, the director of economics at the Budget Lab at Yale, wrote on social media that he knows of no economist who is more data-focused and devoted to truth in statistics than the commissioner. He added, "Nothing would be worse for US credibility than political meddling in our economic data."
On the other hand, Labor Secretary Lori Chavez-DeRemer expressed support for Trump's firing of the commissioner.
In a social media post on Friday, she said she agrees "wholeheartedly" with Trump that employment statistics "must be fair, accurate, and never manipulated for political purposes."
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