In July 2023, President Joe Biden nominated McEntarfer to serve as Commissioner of Labor Statistics at the Bureau of Labor Statistics. She was confirmed by the Senate in January 2024. On August 1, 2025, President Donald Trump controversially fired McEntarfer as commissioner, hours after a weak jobs report from the Bureau. Without evidence, Trump said McEntarfer had manipulated the jobs numbers, an allegation dismissed by economists. The firing was condemned by economists who saw it as politicizing national statistics and undermining trustworthiness of government data produced under the Trump administration.
Early life and education
McEntarfer was born in January 1973.[1] She graduated from Bard College with a bachelor's degree in social science and from Virginia Tech with a PhD in economics.[2]
Career
Early work in the Federal government
From 2002–2008, McEntarfer worked as an economist at the Census Bureau's Longitudinal Employer–Household Dynamics Program; from 2018–2019 she was head of research for the program.[3][4] From 2010, she was a lead Labor Markets economist in the Census Bureau's Center for Economic Studies.[3][5] In periods when she was away from the Census Bureau, McEntarfer had been on the economic staff of the Treasury Department's Office of Tax Policy in 2008–2010, and immediately before her appointment to the BLS had been on the nonpolitical staff of the White House Council of Economic Advisers for a year.[3][4][2]
As commissioner, McEntarfer moved to reduce the sample size of the household survey in the monthly jobs report by five thousand households due to budget constraints.[7] After the Department of Labor determined[when?] that the Bureau of Labor Statistics was "not sufficiently focused" on its process to disseminate sensitive economic information, she led the Bureau's response to follow the department's review.[8]
On August 1, 2025, President Donald Trump announced that he had directed his staff to fire McEntarfer, hours after the Bureau's July jobs report, which included a substantial downward revision of reported job creation from the prior two months and weaker-than-expected job creation for July.[9] In a post on Truth Social, Trump accused McEntarfer, without evidence (according to the Financial Times), of incompetence and of having an ulterior motive for allegedly altering employment figures in order to discredit him and Republicans, and to help Democratic nominee Kamala Harris in the 2024 United States presidential election.[10][11] McEntarfer received notice of her firing hours later.[12]
Trump's assertion that McEntarfer had manipulated the jobs numbers was without evidence and dismissed by economists.[13]
Criticism of firing
The firing drew widespread criticism from former and current economists,[14][15][16] including McEntarfer's predecessor as BLS commissioner, former Heritage Foundation economist William Beach, who called the firing “totally groundless.” According to economists, the firing of statisticians for publishing inconvenient data and replacing them with loyalists who might manipulate data served to politicize national statistics and undermine their trustworthiness, which would have adverse economic consequences.[13] In an interview with Kasie Hunt on the Sunday talk show State of the Union, Beach said:[17]
The commissioner doesn’t do anything to collect the numbers. The commissioner doesn’t see the numbers for until Wednesday before they’re published. By the time the commissioner sees the numbers, they’re all prepared.
Jed Kolko, a senior fellow at the Peterson Institute for International Economics, said the firing was a "five-alarm intentional harm to the integrity of US economic data and the entire statistical system."[14] In an editorial, The Wall Street Journal commented that "Mr. Trump’s data denial is one more reason fewer Americans will trust the government."[18] Commentators pointed out that, with BLS security precautions, the commissioner does not have access to the systems that collect the data for these reports, and could not alter the results without a large number of people knowing, and at least some of them complaining publicly.[19]
New nominee for commissioner of labor of statistics position
The Bureau's deputy commissioner, William Wiatrowski, was named as McEntarfer's acting successor.[6] On August 11, Trump nominated E.J. Antoni to replace McEntarfer as commissioner.[20] In contrast to McEntarfer, Antoni had no experience in government, no substantive academic work, and a track record of echoing Trump rhetoric and lauding Trump.[21][22]
References
↑ "Erika L McEntarfer in the U.S., Index to Public Records, 1994–2019" (Document). Index to Public Records.
↑ McCormick, Myles; Jones, Claire; Steer, George (August 1, 2025). "Donald Trump to fire US labour statistics boss after weak jobs report". Financial Times. Retrieved August 1, 2025. '[McEntarfer] will be replaced with someone much more competent and qualified. Important numbers like this ... can't be manipulated for political purposes,' Trump said, claiming without evidence that she had massaged figures to help the former president ... The president alleged that the data had been 'RIGGED in order to make the Republicans, and ME, look bad'
↑ Sheth, Sonam; Whisnant, Gabe (August 1, 2025). "Donald Trump Fires Person Behind Jobs Numbers After They're Revised Down". Newsweek. Retrieved August 2, 2025. 'Dr. Erika McEntarfer ... faked the Jobs Numbers before the Election to try and boost Kamala's chances of Victory,' Trump posted on Truth Social, referring to former Democratic presidential nominee Kamala Harris.
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