Here’s a rule as old as bad news itself: When you don’t like the message, fire the messenger. President Donald Trump tried exactly that last summer. A year later, we can see how it worked out — and it’s not what he was hoping for.
On Aug. 1, 2025, the Bureau of Labor Statistics reported the economy added just 73,000 jobs in July. It also revised May and June down by more than 200,000 jobs combined. The market sank.
Within hours, Trump fired BLS Commissioner Erika McEntarfer. He said the figures were “RIGGED in order to make the Republicans, and ME, look bad,” and claimed she’d faked numbers before the 2024 election to help Vice President Kamala Harris. He offered no evidence.
The theory behind the firing
The theory was tidy. Get rid of the person supposedly cooking the books, install someone you trust, and the numbers should start behaving. Fewer ugly headlines. A rosier economy on paper. Problem solved.
So Trump went looking for a replacement. His first pick, Heritage Foundation economist E.J. Antoni, didn’t last. The White House withdrew that nomination in September after heavy criticism.
Since then, career economist William Wiatrowski has run the bureau as acting commissioner. Trump has since nominated Brett Matsumoto, a longtime BLS economist now working at the White House Council of Economic Advisers.
What the new numbers actually say
Here’s the part Trump probably didn’t game out. The bad news didn’t stop. If anything, it got more awkward.
The government’s latest annual benchmark revision shows the economy created 79,000 fewer jobs in the year through March 2026 than first reported. That’s a downward revision on his own appointees’ watch.
It gets worse for the boom narrative. The July 2026 jobs report didn’t just come in soft — payrolls actually shrank by 23,000, with unemployment at 4.1%. The bureau also revised May and June down by a combined 103,000 jobs.
And remember the McEntarfer era everyone was so mad about? The big benchmark revision that landed weeks after her firing erased 911,000 jobs from the books for the year through March 2025. Revisions didn’t start or stop with her.
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What this means for your wallet
Politics aside, here’s what matters to you. Hiring has clearly cooled. When employers add fewer workers — or cut them — raises get smaller, job offers get scarcer, and switching jobs for more money gets harder.
If you’ve got a job you like, this is the year to make yourself indispensable. If you’re hunting, expect a longer search and apply wider. Some corners are still hiring in 2026, and a handful of recession-proof jobs tend to hold up when the economy wobbles.
And whatever your situation, build up your cash cushion. A softening labor market is exactly when an extra few months of expenses in the bank buys you options — and peace of mind.
The bottom line
Firing McEntarfer was supposed to fix the numbers. Instead, the numbers under Trump’s own hand-picked leadership are telling the same story — a job market that’s downshifting.
That leaves two possibilities. Either the data was never rigged in the first place, or Trump’s own appointees are now rigging it against him. One of those makes sense. The other doesn’t.
My take, after 35 years of watching this stuff: While politicians often fudge numbers, the scorekeepers rarely do.
Plan around the numbers, not the noise.
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