On Friday, the Bureau of Labor Statistics released its monthly jobs report.

Our colleague Matt Grossman, who covers business and financial news, was following the story

as he usually does.

Friday morning started with a routine jobs report from the Bureau of Labor Statistics. This is a report

that we get every month on the first Friday of the month, giving information on the previous

month's labor market. This jobs report was the weakest one to come since the beginning of

President Donald Trump's second term.

The report said that the economy added 73,000 jobs in July, which was less than economists

had expected.

But maybe the bigger news was that the Labor Department said that in May and June, the

economy actually added 258,000 fewer jobs than it had initially reported in those months.

To economists, it was clear.

The report showed signs of a slowing economy.

And that really seemed to enrage President Trump.

And a few hours later, he announced that he was firing the commissioner of the Bureau of Labor Statistics,

Erica McIntyrefer, alleging that she was presiding over an office that was rigging the statistics

to make a political point against him.

For decades, the Bureau of Labor Statistics, which is part of the Labor Department,

has been relied upon as a nonpartisan and impartial agency. And there's really, for decades,

never been any serious allegations that the numbers are skewed for political purposes. So it was

very unusual for a president to add a political spin to the office and was really a shock to people who follow the statistics.

Welcome to The Journal, our show about money, business, and power.

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