Economists defend labor data chief fired by Trump
Aug. 3 (UPI) -- Economists are lining up to defend Bureau of Labor Statistics commissioner Erika McEntarfer, who was fired by President Donald Trump on Friday over his allegations that the agency manipulated a report showing low job growth for July.
"It has been the honor of my life to serve as Commissioner of BLS alongside the many dedicated civil servants tasked with measuring a vast and dynamic economy. It is vital and important work and I thank them for their service to this nation," McEntarfer said on social media Friday.
Her firing came after the July report had shown that jobs growth was slower than expected as the unemployment rose, with the United States only adding 73,000 new jobs for the month -- down from 147,000 new jobs added in June.
"Today's jobs numbers were rigged in order to make Republicans and me look bad," Trump had said Friday afternoon in a Truth Social post.
Former Treasury Secretary Larry Summers called Trump's accusations a "preposterous charge" in an interview with ABC News' "This Week" program Sunday.
"These numbers are put together by teams of literally hundreds of people following detailed procedures that are in manuals. There's no conceivable way that the head of the BLS could have manipulated this number," Summers said.
Summers said that the numbers in the job report were "in line" with data and information being reviewed in the private sector and criticized Trump for his "authoritarian" removal of McEntarfer.
"Firing statisticians goes with threatening the heads of newspapers. It goes with launching assaults on universities. It goes with launching assaults on law firms that defend clients that the elected boss finds uncongenial," he said. "This is really scary stuff."
Bill Beach, McEntarfer's predecessor, appeared in an interview with CNN's "State of the Union" on Sunday where he likewise called the move by Trump "totally groundless" and dangerous.
"The commissioner doesn't see the numbers until Wednesday before they're published. By the time the commissioner sees the numbers, they're all prepared. They're locked into the computer system," Beach said.
Beach said that the only thing the commissioner can do before the jobs report is published is review the text accompanying the data, as he explained part of the process of how they're compiled.
"What I think really upset the president on Friday were the revisions to May and June, big revisions. But that's because, like every time we publish on Friday, there are revisions to the previous two months," he said. "This is a survey. And a survey has sample returns."
Beach said the jobs reports are compiled from surveys that are sent out to Americans and hundreds of thousands of businesses each month. But the BLS doesn't receive all the returns in time, keeping the window for responses open an extra two months.
"What you saw on Friday was the effect of trying to do a better job, getting more information," Beach said.
During his interview, Beach was asked if he would believe future report numbers compiled by the BLS after a successor for McEntarfer is found.
"I will, because I know the people who work there. They are some of the most loyal Americans you can imagine. They have worked in every kind of political circumstance. They are completely devoted to producing the very best gold standard data possible," he said. "And that's why BLS is the finest statistical agency in the entire world. Its numbers are trusted all over the world. So, I will trust those numbers."
Still, White House officials aimed Sunday to double down on the president's claim that the data was being manipulated, without evidence.
White House economic adviser Kevin Hassett was interviewed on NBC News' "Meet the Press" on Sunday and said that the BLS needs a "fresh set of eyes."
"There have been a bunch of patterns that could make people wonder," he said. "And I think 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 these revisions are so unreliable."
The far-right political activist Laura Loomer, who is not an official member of the Trump administration but has positioned herself as an informal chief adviser on personnel matters, called the BLS situation a "vetting crisis."
"Great job by President Trump who just announced he is firing Biden holdover Erika McEntarfer, the Commissioner of Labor Statistics," she said on social media. "Every single Biden holdover must be FIRED."
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