Economy faces further damage due to Trump's strategy of targeting critical communicators
Headline: Political Firing Raises Concerns Over Independence and Reliability of U.S. Labor Data
The recent dismissal of Erika McEntarfer, the head of the Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS), by President Trump has sparked controversy and raised concerns about the credibility and reliability of U.S. labor data. Trump, who appointed McEntarfer's successor, claimed the BLS had manipulated jobs data, labeling a recent report as "rigged."
However, several economists, including those who have worked under both Republican and Democratic administrations, have emphasized that the BLS report was not fishy. Aaron Sojourner, a labor economist and senior researcher at the W. E. Upjohn Institute for Employment Research, stated that attacking the BLS's independence damages the credibility of the statistics.
The BLS, with a team of 2,000 people, is responsible for sending out surveys, compiling answers, and taking the temperature of the labor market at a steady cadence. The agency holds a mirror up to the economy without any spin on the ball, making its statistics crucial for businesses and policymakers to have reliable labor data available.
The past three months have shown the weakest job growth since 2010, with only 106,000 jobs added in total compared to the roughly 150,000 jobs economists consider healthy each month. The revisions to the May and June job numbers were the bigger news: May's total was revised lower to 19,000, and June's total was revised down to 14,000.
Stephan Miran, one of the White House's top economists, analyzed the report and found the revisions to be a result of seasonal "quirks" in the data. The BLS, with its decades-old processes and procedures, is a 2,000-strong technocratic institution that makes it challenging to singlehandedly skew the data.
The firing of McEntarfer may send a message to other civic-minded bureaucrats that they might need to manipulate data to Trump's liking or face consequences. Harvard economist Jason Furman wrote that Trump's decision to fire McEntarfer is closer to what one expects from a banana republic than from a major democratic financial center.
In conclusion, the firing has negatively affected perceptions of the BLS's independence and the reliability of labor data in the U.S. by politicizing what is usually a nonpartisan role, raising alarms about potential data manipulation or loss of credibility. The incident introduces political interference risks into an agency traditionally seen as independent, thus potentially undermining trust in labor market statistics that guide policy and business decisions.
Footnote: [1] Based on various reports and statements from economists and former BLS officials.
- The firing of Erika McEntarfer, the head of the Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS), has sparked concerns that political interference could lead to data manipulation in the realm of policy-and-legislation, thereby affecting the credibility and reliability of general-news related to war-and-conflicts, business, and politics.
- The controversy surrounding the dismissal of McEntarfer sheds light on the importance of the BLS's independence as it provides crucial labor data essential for businesses and policymakers, and any potential manipulation or loss of credibility could have far-reaching implications on war-and-conflicts, business decisions, and policy-and-legislation.
