When calculating statistics becomes political.

From Marketplace, I'm Subri Beneshore in for David Brancaccio.

On Friday, the Bureau of Labor Statistics reported that job creation in the U.S. was much lower than expected in July

and revised down its numbers from May and June, reporting there were 258,000 fewer jobs created in those months

than initially estimated. President Trump upset about the revisions, then proceeded to fire

the head of that bureau. The president now says he'll name a replacement in the coming days.

Marketplaces Mitchell Hartman has more.

President Trump's reaction to the bad jobs report news was swift.

He posted on truth social that, quote, we need accurate jobs numbers and proceeded to fire the BLS Commissioner Erica McIntarfer, who was appointed by President Biden.

President Trump alleged that the July jobs numbers were rigged to damage him politically.

But experts in the field say any such manipulation of the data by BLS, including by the

commissioner, would be nigh on impossible, given the high level of scrutiny and cross-checking

by nonpartisan career statisticians that the entire process of BLS data production undergoes.

And if there were to be some sort of breach, we would know about it.

Steve Pearson is Director of Science Policy at the American Statistical Association and was

interviewed before this latest controversy.

The signal would come out that there has been some sort of improper meddling with the

data. There's been no such evidence about the production of the July jobs report so far.

Erica McIntyre was a year and a half into a four-year appointment as BLS Commissioner, confirmed by

the Senate. The president has the right to fire her. Her temporary replacement

is a well-respected longtime career BLS employee. I'm Mitchell Hartman for Marketplace.

Manufacturing in the U.S. is having a rough time. A report out last week from the Institute for

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