Shortly after Friday’s job growth numbers came in lower than expected from the U.S. Bureau of Labor and Statistics (BLS), President Donald Trump fired Commissioner Erika McEntarfer, stating the agency’s data was “manipulated for political purposes.”

In a subsequent post, he stated: “Today’s Jobs Numbers were RIGGED in order to make the Republicans, and ME, look bad.”

A unit of the U.S. Department of Labor, the BLS has always been seen as non-partisan, a fact-finding agency for the U.S. government in the broad field of labor economics and statistics. It serves as a principal agency of the U.S. Federal Statistical System. She had been confirmed last year with a bipartisan 86-8 Senate vote, with support from then-senators Vice President JD Vance and Secretary of State Marco Rubio.

The firing of McEntarfer has raised outrage among economists and politicians. Many economists and lawmakers have been vocal across news and social channels, including her predecessors as BLS commissioners, Erica Groshen and Bill Beach, who co-chair an organization called The Friends of the Bureau of Labor Statistics. The group called Trump’s claim baseless and damaging.

“The President seeks to blame someone for unwelcome economic news,” it stated. “The Commissioner does not determine what the numbers are but simply reports on what the data show. The process of obtaining the numbers is decentralized by design to avoid opportunities for interference.”

Groshen, who served as the 14th BLS commissioner and is currently senior economics advisor at the Cornell University School of Industrial and Labor Relations, spoke with Scotsman Guide about McEntarfer’s firing. She said the attacks on the U.S. data system weaken the underpinnings of our economy, and will slow economic growth.

“The uproar is not about a bunch of pointy-headed academic wonks losing their favorite data toys,” Groshen said. “The uproar is about the loss of essential infrastructure that is a lot like roads and bridges. It’s data infrastructure that informs decisions across all areas of the federal government and our economy.”

She emphasized the importance of the integrity of BLS statistics. “Our business communities need to raise their voices loud and strong to protect everyone’s access to gold standard data.”

“Without reliable data, we will all make what is technically called ‘lousy decisions,’” Goshen said.

Senator Mark Warner, D-Va., a member of the Senate Banking Committee, appeared Friday on Bloomberg’s “Balance of Power” and called the firing “beyond outrageous.”

Warner also pointed to the administration’s efforts to influence decisions by the Federal Reserve, especially after Fed governor Adriana Kugler’s sudden resignation Friday.

“It might bleed into the Fed decision,” Warner said, referring to whom Trump might appoint to the vacated seat. “Because, oh my gosh, if they’re trying to cook the books on the actual numbers, maybe we oughta redouble our efforts to make sure Fed governors should be truly independent.”

Rhode Island Senator Jack Reed, also a member of the Banking Committee, called out Trump on the firing. “His petulant ‘shoot-the-messenger approach’ at BLS raises all sorts of troubling questions about the future integrity of BLS’s ability to provide accurate, unbiased economic metrics to the public. We’ll see whether the business community finds any comfort in the President’s chaotic tariff taxes and firing of economic data experts.”

The National Association for Business Economics (NABE) released a statement strongly condemning the firing “and the unfounded accusations leveled against the work of this agency. This unprecedented attack on the U.S. statistical system threatens the long-standing credibility of our economic data infrastructure.”

Stating that her removal threatens to erode public confidence in the BLS and the broader federal statistical system, NABE called on Congress “to review the circumstances surrounding the dismissal of Commissioner McEntarfer, ensure that statistical agencies are adequately resourced to produce timely and accurate data, and consider steps to strengthen their independence and integrity.”

Ken Simonson, a past NABE president and chief economist for the Associated General Contractors of America (AGC), told Scotsman Guide the firing of Commissioner McEntarfer represented “an unprecedented threat to the independence of BLS. It greatly increases the risk that any numbers the agency puts out, not just employment figures, will be suspect. It also sends a chilling message to the government’s other statistical agencies.”

Simonson had served for six years each on two federal advisory committees: BLS’s Data Users Advisory Committee and the U.S. Census Bureau’s Census Scientific Advisory Committee. These committees, comprising a range of outside experts, met in person and through working groups to hear presentations from the agencies and offer recommendations for improving data collection, analysis and communications. The Trump administration abolished the committees earlier this year.

He said both agencies set the gold standard “for scientifically based, impartially produced data about the U.S. economy. They have successfully maintained independence from partisan influence despite numerous efforts by political appointees and members of Congress to politicize their work.”

The American Economic Association (AEA), a nonprofit, nonpartisan and scholarly association with more than 17,000 members from academia, government, and business, issued a release about the firing, to “express their grave concern over the dismissal.”

“The independence of the federal statistical agencies is essential to the proper functioning of a modern economy. Accurate, timely, and impartial statistics are the foundation upon which households, businesses, and policymakers make critical decisions,” the AEA statement read. “Undermining the independence or credibility of these agencies threatens the integrity of the information that markets, institutions, and the public rely on every day.”

The AEA said that measuring the vast and dynamic U.S. economy in real time is inherently challenging. “It is standard practice for statistical estimates to be revised as more complete and higher-quality data become available. These revisions reflect the commitment of statistical agencies to accuracy, transparency, and methodological rigor — not failure or bias.”

Referring to the BLS’s reputation for professional excellence and nonpartisan integrity, the AEA stated that safeguarding this tradition is vital for the continued health of the U.S. economy and public trust in our institutions.

Ron Hetrick is principal economist at Lightcast, a company that provides labor market data. He served as economist for BLS in the Bush and Clinton administrations, and posted on LinkedIn about the firing.

“I have said many times that you can’t get more apolitical than BLS. We were oblivious to politics and narratives. We collected data and produced the results,” Hetrick wrote in a public post, adding that he was delighted to see the downward revision last month to what he felt was more appropriate.

“BLS is the most respected labor data producer in the world and it isn’t even close. Don’t ever forget that. Trends in labor market declines due to plunges in immigration confirmed by border crossing data, the stagnant unemployment claims, and our Lightcast job postings data all confirm what we are seeing in the BLS data,” Hetrick wrote.