WashingtonUsually working in anonymity, the director of the organization that creates the highly anticipated monthly jobs report was abruptly fired by the US president on Friday.
The weight of President Donald Trump’s displeasure with Friday’s jobs report, which revealed that hiring had slowed in July and was significantly lower in May and June than initially projected, fell on Erika McEntarfer, a lifelong government employee. He pointed out that she was a President Joe Biden appointee and accused her of manipulating the job numbers without any supporting proof.
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An Associated Press request for comment from McEntarfer, a lifelong federal employee who has led BLS for a year and a half, was not immediately answered. However, former coworkers, associates, and her predecessor in charge of the jobs agency have condemned the dismissal, stating that McEntarfer was not political in her position and warned of the consequences.
Here are some facts on Erika McEntarfer:
McEntarfer has a solid foundation in economics.
McEntarfer, whose research focuses on wage rigidity, worker mobility, retirement, and job loss, has previously held nonpolitical positions at the White House Council of Economic Advisers, the Census Bureau’s Center for Economic Studies, and the Treasury Department’s Office of Tax Policy.
She graduated from Bard College with a bachelor’s degree in social science and Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University with a doctorate in economics.
A bipartisan vote approved her as the head of the BLS.
The Senate Committee on Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions suggested that McEntarfer’s 2023 candidacy for BLS chief be sent to the entire Senate for a vote.
In January 2024, a bipartisan Senate vote of 86–8 approved her as BLS commissioner. Then-Sen. Marco Rubio of Florida, now Trump’s secretary of state, and then-Sen. JD Vance of Ohio, now Trump’s vice president, were among the Republican senators who voted to confirm her.
A group known as the Friends of the BLS, which was composed of past commissioners from both Democratic and Republican administrations, statistical association members, and certified economists, stated prior to her confirmation hearing that McEntarfer’s experience made her an excellent fit for the position.
According to Friends of the BLS, there are numerous reasons to swiftly confirm Dr. McEntarfer as the new BLS Commissioner. These include the fact that the agency, like the statistical system as a whole, is going through a major and intense period of change, and that Dr. McEntarfer’s extensive research and statistical experience have prepared her to be the strong leader that BLS needs to meet these challenges.
Her termination was criticized by her former coworkers and associates.
In an X post, William Beach, who was appointed BLS commissioner by Trump in 2019 and served until 2023 under President Joe Biden, referred to McEntarfer’s termination as unjustified and stated that it creates a risky precedent and compromises the Bureau’s statistical mandate.
McEntarfer was generous with her time in clarifying what inferences could or could not be drawn from the data, according to Sarah J. Glynn, the former head economist at the Labor Department who was regularly briefed by McEntarfer about the results of the BLS.
“McEntarfer would say so if the data didn’t support something an administration official was saying,” Glynn added. Additionally, Glynn stated that she would just respond to inquiries regarding the data and never offered any opinions on how the administration should portray or interpret it.
According to Glynn, she had a stellar reputation for caring about the data’s quality and avoiding adding political gloss to her work.
McEntarfer never discussed politics at work, according to Heather Boushey, a senior research scholar at Harvard University who was a member of the White House Council of Economic Advisers.
She arrived each day with the intention of avoiding politics and concentrating on the greatest analysis and methodology in her profession. I repeatedly witnessed her doing that. According to Boushey, she is intelligent and well-liked by labor economists in general. She wasn’t at my office to discuss politics or the political ramifications of a particular issue. She was certainly not participating in that aspect of the situation.
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From New York, Olson reported. This report was written by Christopher Rugaber of the Associated Press in Washington.
