6 ms·

Trump orders firing of labor stats chief after data showed jobs growth slowed

55 points by throwaway5752 1y ago

yakz 1y ago
It is the duty of the Congress to right this wrong and they will fail this test.
NullHypothesist 1y ago
This is what corruption looks like.
- belter 1y ago
  This is when a micro black hole cross the plane of the solar system, and your reality fuses with the Onion
  - jleyank 1y ago
    I thought the Onion gave up as they could not come with satire anymore. People kept thinking it was real news or commentary.
  - deleted 1y ago
    [deleted]
- taylodl 1y ago
  This is what a dictatorship looks like.
- rhelz 1y ago
  I'm as big of a critic of Trump as you are likely to find but......the previous jobs reports was revised DOWNWARD by over a quarter of a million jobs. Sure, you expect the numbers to change as more data comes in. But...that's a pretty big misoverestimate. This is very problematic, as it actually MASKED some of the ill effects which Trump's policies have had. Who knows if Trump would have actually moderated his policies if he had had a more accurate read sooner, but private companies rely on this data as well, and no doubt they have made decisions they wouldn't have if they had know the true numbers. Trump certainly was mean-spirited in trying to frame this as a partisan issue, and downright disingenuous in some of his accusations. Nevertheless, >250,000 jobs everybody thought were there but weren't....yeah, that's a firing offense.
  - littlexsparkee 1y ago
    ADP crunches the numbers too and they were more in line with the revised estimates - there was nothing preventing companies from acting on that. How can you claim this is fireable without context about how the calculations/revisions occur and their side of the story? These trade policies are engendering so much uncertainty, combined with the shakeup in the federal workforce - honestly something like this was pretty foreseeable...
    - rhelz 1y ago
      // how can you claim this is fixable w/o ... // Recall, her job wasn't to predict how many jobs would be created. Her job was to measure how many jobs were created. Yeah, I'm sorry, but a plus-or-minus 250,000 margin of error is just too high. We have every right to expect more accurate measurements than that.
      - watwut 1y ago
        Nah, you are just reaching to excuse purely political firing.
        rhelz 1y ago
        Trump has certainly politicized this firing, but it is not a firing without cause. If Trump knew a quarter ago that his tariffs were taking employment, he could have done something about it. Instead, the read he got seemed to indicate that he wasn't hurting employment at all. We have to be careful not to overstate our case. If we just complain indiscriminately about everything Trump does, nobody will or should take us seriously.
        exceptione 1y ago
        > If Trump knew a quarter ago that his tariffs were taking employment, he could have done something about it. The understandable mistake is wanting to interpret the regime like it is something like a natural, healthy part of society, a rule-abiding, constructive force seeking win-wins, seeking broader support, seeking consensus. It isn't, and the failing to highlight that it is the failing of the 4th estate. There is electorate and there is selectorate. The people in power all knew what was coming; the outrage is just circus. The people that decide over Trump do not have such things as "jobs", it is not a concern at all. Even an economic crash won't affect them.
- jauntywundrkind 1y ago
  What flavor of corruption though? Really enjoyed this (login only) post: > The Nazi comparisons are useful, but the Trump instinct to address negative outcomes by firing and silencing anyone on their team foolish enough to report them always makes me think of Mao and the Great Famine. https://bsky.app/profile/joekatz45.bsky.social/post/3lvem6cozec2p https://bsky.app/profile/joekatz45.bsky.social/post/3lvem6co... Sure why not both? But the dogma of dear leader ism & willingness to have the facts be what they say you are, to habitually step on experts & spread distrust (using a sharpie on the hurricane predictions) is something seriously enjoying huffing it's own farts.
throwaway5752 1y ago
I missed https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=44760734 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=44760734 that previously posted about this.
exceptione 1y ago
The media rooms in the US will discuss this like a regular infotainment item, making it look like a normal controversy. Then it will pushed out from the news by some other circus act. For many, this will feel like a defensible move or a minor mistake. If the public discourse is corrupted, the public will be corrupted. And so the whole house will come down, just as intended.
johntfella 1y ago
this opinion piece from bloomberg earlier in July comes to mind; https://www.bloomberg.com/opinion/articles/2025-07-14/statistics-and-politics-are-a-dangerous-mix https://www.bloomberg.com/opinion/articles/2025-07-14/statis...
IAmGraydon 1y ago
Those who follow economic indicators know that revisions happen and always will due to the nature of how the data comes in. It is sometimes simply not possible to have all of the data before the date that the release is scheduled for. Perhaps the dumbest thing about Trump’s dictatorial firing of the person in charge of these numbers is the fact that downward revisions work in his favor because most people don’t pay attention to them. They just pay attention to the current release. The numbers for May and June looked good when they came out and no one would have been talking about the revised had it not been for his temper tantrum. In fact, Trump accused the Biden administration (on Truth Social) of using this as a way to hide bad numbers from the public back in August 2024 - release good numbers and quietly revise later. Now he’s claiming that it’s being used against him. What’s really going on is he knows the economic shitstorm from his idiotic tariffs is about to begin and he will need to control the narrative. Unfortunately for him, this is about to spiral way out of his ability to control.

55 points by throwaway5752 1y ago

yakz 1y ago

It is the duty of the Congress to right this wrong and they will fail this test.

NullHypothesist 1y ago

This is what corruption looks like.

belter 1y ago
This is when a micro black hole cross the plane of the solar system, and your reality fuses with the Onion
- jleyank 1y ago
  I thought the Onion gave up as they could not come with satire anymore. People kept thinking it was real news or commentary.
- deleted 1y ago
  [deleted]
taylodl 1y ago
This is what a dictatorship looks like.
rhelz 1y ago
I'm as big of a critic of Trump as you are likely to find but......the previous jobs reports was revised DOWNWARD by over a quarter of a million jobs. Sure, you expect the numbers to change as more data comes in. But...that's a pretty big misoverestimate. This is very problematic, as it actually MASKED some of the ill effects which Trump's policies have had. Who knows if Trump would have actually moderated his policies if he had had a more accurate read sooner, but private companies rely on this data as well, and no doubt they have made decisions they wouldn't have if they had know the true numbers. Trump certainly was mean-spirited in trying to frame this as a partisan issue, and downright disingenuous in some of his accusations. Nevertheless, >250,000 jobs everybody thought were there but weren't....yeah, that's a firing offense.
- littlexsparkee 1y ago
  ADP crunches the numbers too and they were more in line with the revised estimates - there was nothing preventing companies from acting on that. How can you claim this is fireable without context about how the calculations/revisions occur and their side of the story? These trade policies are engendering so much uncertainty, combined with the shakeup in the federal workforce - honestly something like this was pretty foreseeable...
  - rhelz 1y ago
    // how can you claim this is fixable w/o ... // Recall, her job wasn't to predict how many jobs would be created. Her job was to measure how many jobs were created. Yeah, I'm sorry, but a plus-or-minus 250,000 margin of error is just too high. We have every right to expect more accurate measurements than that.
    - watwut 1y ago
      Nah, you are just reaching to excuse purely political firing.
      - rhelz 1y ago
        Trump has certainly politicized this firing, but it is not a firing without cause. If Trump knew a quarter ago that his tariffs were taking employment, he could have done something about it. Instead, the read he got seemed to indicate that he wasn't hurting employment at all. We have to be careful not to overstate our case. If we just complain indiscriminately about everything Trump does, nobody will or should take us seriously.
        exceptione 1y ago
        > If Trump knew a quarter ago that his tariffs were taking employment, he could have done something about it. The understandable mistake is wanting to interpret the regime like it is something like a natural, healthy part of society, a rule-abiding, constructive force seeking win-wins, seeking broader support, seeking consensus. It isn't, and the failing to highlight that it is the failing of the 4th estate. There is electorate and there is selectorate. The people in power all knew what was coming; the outrage is just circus. The people that decide over Trump do not have such things as "jobs", it is not a concern at all. Even an economic crash won't affect them.
jauntywundrkind 1y ago
What flavor of corruption though? Really enjoyed this (login only) post: > The Nazi comparisons are useful, but the Trump instinct to address negative outcomes by firing and silencing anyone on their team foolish enough to report them always makes me think of Mao and the Great Famine. https://bsky.app/profile/joekatz45.bsky.social/post/3lvem6cozec2p https://bsky.app/profile/joekatz45.bsky.social/post/3lvem6co... Sure why not both? But the dogma of dear leader ism & willingness to have the facts be what they say you are, to habitually step on experts & spread distrust (using a sharpie on the hurricane predictions) is something seriously enjoying huffing it's own farts.

throwaway5752 1y ago

I missed https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=44760734 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=44760734 that previously posted about this.

exceptione 1y ago

The media rooms in the US will discuss this like a regular infotainment item, making it look like a normal controversy. Then it will pushed out from the news by some other circus act. For many, this will feel like a defensible move or a minor mistake. If the public discourse is corrupted, the public will be corrupted. And so the whole house will come down, just as intended.

johntfella 1y ago

this opinion piece from bloomberg earlier in July comes to mind; https://www.bloomberg.com/opinion/articles/2025-07-14/statistics-and-politics-are-a-dangerous-mix https://www.bloomberg.com/opinion/articles/2025-07-14/statis...

IAmGraydon 1y ago

Those who follow economic indicators know that revisions happen and always will due to the nature of how the data comes in. It is sometimes simply not possible to have all of the data before the date that the release is scheduled for. Perhaps the dumbest thing about Trump’s dictatorial firing of the person in charge of these numbers is the fact that downward revisions work in his favor because most people don’t pay attention to them. They just pay attention to the current release. The numbers for May and June looked good when they came out and no one would have been talking about the revised had it not been for his temper tantrum. In fact, Trump accused the Biden administration (on Truth Social) of using this as a way to hide bad numbers from the public back in August 2024 - release good numbers and quietly revise later. Now he’s claiming that it’s being used against him. What’s really going on is he knows the economic shitstorm from his idiotic tariffs is about to begin and he will need to control the narrative. Unfortunately for him, this is about to spiral way out of his ability to control.