'The revisions are hard evidence': White House struggles to justify firing of BLS chief over weak jobs numbers

National Economic Council Director Kevin Hassett connected Sunday defended President Donald Trump's abrupt determination to fire the Bureau of Labor Statistics commissioner, without citing circumstantial evidence.

Hassett repeatedly pointed to the revisions successful Friday's employment data to warrant Trump's firing of BLS Commissioner Erika McEntarfer, but did not supply information showing the latest jobs study was "rigged," arsenic Trump claimed.

"I mean, the revisions are hard evidence," he said on NBC News, adding that determination "have been a clump of patterns that could marque radical wonder."

Trump connected Friday fired McEntarfer, accusing her of manipulating the jobs numbers for governmental purposes aft the latest study included downward revisions to occupation maturation information for 2 erstwhile months.

Hassett argued that the revisions are a "historically important outlier," saying they rise broader doubts astir the data.

He besides rejected claims that Trump was shooting the messenger for the weaker-than-expected jobs numbers.

Instead, helium said, the president "wants his ain radical there," suggesting that the information would beryllium "more transparent and much reliable" with a Trump appointee.

"And if determination are large changes and large revisions, we expect much large revisions for the jobs information successful September, for example, past we privation to cognize why, we privation radical to explicate it to us," helium continued. Hassett did not accidental whether the White House had asked McEntarfer to explicate the crushed for the revisions successful the information earlier she was fired.

McEntarfer's ouster drew crisp backlash from economists and others, fearing that specified a determination could undermine spot successful the government's information successful the future.

Former BLS Commissioner William Beach, whom Trump appointed, said the commissioner's firing was "totally groundless," which "sets a unsafe precedent and undermines the statistical ngo of the Bureau."

McEntarfer's firing came aft the BLS reported weaker-than-expected jobs figures.

Nonfarm payrolls roseate 73,000 successful July, supra the anterior month's 14,000 jobs but beneath adjacent the meager Dow Jones estimation for a summation of 100,000. June and May totals were revised sharply lower, down by a combined 258,000 from antecedently announced levels.

Trump has often praised beardown jobs reports during periods of growth.

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