Trump Orders Firing of Statistics Head After Weak July Jobs Report

WSJ What’s News

The Wall Street Journal

News, Daily News

4 • 4K Ratings

🗓️ 1 August 2025

⏱️ 13 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

P.M. Edition for Aug. 1. The jobs report, which showed sharply lower revised numbers for May and June, may open the door for the Fed to cut interest rates at its next meeting in September. WSJ finance news editor Christina Rexrode joins to discuss. Plus, software company Figma’s stock market debut yesterday saw its stock price jump 250% in its first day of trading, leaving some $3 billion on the table. We hear from Corrie Driebusch, who covers U.S. capital markets for the Journal, about why that happened. And President Trump says he will position two nuclear submarines “in the appropriate regions” in response to criticism from a former Russian leader. Alex Ossola hosts. Sign up for the WSJ's free What's News newsletter. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Transcript

Click on a timestamp to play from that location

0:00.0	Ready to launch your business? Get started with the commerce platform made for entrepreneurs. Shopify is specially designed to help you start, run and grow your business with easy customizable themes that let you build your brand, marketing tools that get your products out there. Integrated shipping solutions that actually save you time. From startups to scaleups, in-person, and on the go. Shopify is made for
0:22.8	entrepreneurs like you. Sign up for your $1 a month trial at Shopify.com slash setup.
0:33.3	Trump fires the labor statistics chief after a new report showed that U.S. hiring slowed in July, paving the way for a possible rate cut.
0:42.3	This opens the door a little bit wider for the Fed to potentially cut in September.
0:47.9	But it's August 1st right now. Mid-September feels really far away.
0:52.6	Plus, how does a company leave $3 billion on the table as it goes public?
0:57.5	And is Amazon falling behind in the artificial intelligence race?
1:01.5	It's Friday, August 1st.
1:03.4	I'm Alex O'Sullough for the Wall Street Journal.
1:05.8	This is the PM edition of What's News, the top headlines and business stories that move the world today.
1:16.2	A new report from the Labor Department out today showed that the U.S. added a seasonally
1:21.0	adjusted 73,000 jobs in July, below the gain of 100,000 jobs economists pulled by the Wall Street Journal had expected to see.
1:28.7	It's a signal that pockets of weakness that had been marring the labor market are starting to take hold.
1:33.7	I'm joined now by finance editor Christina Rex Road.
1:37.0	Christina, what is driving jobs growth down?
1:40.5	There's a couple of things.
1:42.3	In the air, there's a lot of talk about tariffs, making companies uncertain about hiring.
1:48.6	A lot of places want to wait to hire until they have a little bit more clarity on where the economy is going.
1:58.1	But the thing that really concerned people is that the numbers for May and June were
2:03.8	revised so much lower. The Labor Department said Friday that May added just 19,000 jobs and
2:11.0	June added just 14,000. And it's normal to have revisions. What's a little concerning right now is that all the revisions lately, so far this year, have all been negative.
2:25.9	After today's jobs report came out, President Trump announced that he is firing the top official at the Bureau of Labor Statistics.
	...

Transcript will be available on the free plan in 14 days. Upgrade to see the full transcript now.

Previous episode | Next episode

Disclaimer: The podcast and artwork embedded on this page are from The Wall Street Journal, and are the property of its owner and not affiliated with or endorsed by Tapesearch.

Generated transcripts are the property of The Wall Street Journal and are distributed freely under the Fair Use doctrine. Transcripts generated by Tapesearch are not guaranteed to be accurate.