The US Economy Risks Flying Blind Into a Storm

Trump's sacking of a key statistician has serious implications not just for America.

- Kathryn Anne Edwards

For the first time, the Commissioner of the Bureau of Labor Statistics has been fired by the President of the United States for political reasons, launching the US$30 trillion (S$38 trillion) economy into uncharted and dangerous territory. It's hard to overstate the peril that awaits.

The Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) compiles what are perhaps the country's most important economic reports, including the monthly employment and inflation reports. The department's commissioner is appointed by the President, but the BLS describes its work as "independent" and "non-partisan."

This impartiality is key to the public and market's trust in the data, which influences the price of money not just in the US but around the world and is touted as the gold standard for economic statistics.

The commissioner, fired via a social media post, is Ms. Erika McEntarfer, who was nominated to head the agency by former President Joe Biden in 2023. She was confirmed by the Senate in January 2024 by a vote of 86-8. To be clear, the problem is not that she was fired but rather that she was slandered. After all, this is the same agency that produced data in recent months showing that inflation was tame and which the White House cheered.

And yet, Mr. Trump took to social media to charge, without evidence, that the monthly employment report for July that was released earlier on August 1 was "rigged" because it showed a rapidly weakening labor market.

In the last three months, the economy added just 106,000 jobs, with May and June revised lower by a combined 258,000. That three-month stretch was the worst for job growth since the pandemic, and it happens to come as President Trump's chaotic tariff strategy paralyzes businesses, which are finding it impossible to plan ahead.