Topline
The Trump administration cast doubt on the integrity of the Bureau of Labor Statistics after it revised jobs data over the past year to show the U.S. economy added nearly 1 million fewer jobs than previously reported—echoing earlier claims made by President Donald Trump as he’s called for new leadership at the agency.President Donald Trump listens to questions from reporters after speaking on economic data in the Oval Office on August 07, 2025 in Washington, DC. (Photo by Win McNamee/Getty Images) Getty Images
Key Facts
Vice President JD Vance wrote “it’s difficult to overstate how useless BLS data had become” and suggested the revision should “restore confidence,” resharing a tweet from Navy Federal Credit Union chief economist Heather Long that said the revision shows “the labor market was weak even before the tariffs kicked in.” Rep. Steve Scalise, R-La., said Trump is “RIGHT to demand transparency and changes from the BLS” in response to the revisions, adding that they show “Biden’s economy was even WORSE than reported.” White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt also accused the BLS of having “failed the American people,” but said the report showing the U.S. economy added 911,000 fewer jobs than previously reported between April of last year and March of this year proves “that President Trump was right: Biden’s economy was a disaster and the BLS is broken.” Leavitt said in a statement “there is no room for such a significant and consistent amount of error,” though, as Long noted, the BLS revises data every year, and the larger revisions are “mainly due to problems accounting for new/closed businesses since the pandemic.”
Labor Secretary Lori Chavez-DeRemer also blamed the Biden administration for the data changing so much, alleging BLS leadership “failed to improve their practices” during his tenure, “calling into question the motivation behind their inaction.”
Crucial Quote
“I think the economy is weakening,” JPMorgan Chase CEO Jamie Dimon said in an interview with CNBC on Tuesday. “Whether that is on the way to recession or just weakening, I don’t know.”
Tangent
The criticism echoes Trump, who ousted former BLS chief Erika McEntarfer earlier this year and accused her of manipulating jobs data during the 2024 election to help Biden.
Key Background
The BLS released a preliminary report Tuesday that found employers added 849,000 total jobs for the year ending in March, opposed to previous data that showed 1.76 million new jobs. The Treasury Department and analysts at major U.S. banks predicted the revision, which was slightly higher than the revision issued for last year’s annual data, when the BLS lowered jobs growth by 818,000 jobs.
Contra
Some economists have defended the BLS against Trump’s criticism. The National Association for Business Economists said in a statement it “stands firmly with the dedicated economists and statisticians at BLS and across federal agencies.”
What To Watch For
Congress has yet to confirm Trump’s replacement for McEntarfer, Heritage Foundation chief economist E.J. Antoni.
Further Reading
US Added Nearly A Million Fewer Jobs Than Reported (Forbes)
