Fact check: Trump’s claims jobless numbers were 'rigged'
Since Friday, when the Bureau of Labor Statistics released its monthly jobs report, President Donald Trump has made repeated claims that the August report was "rigged" in order to "make a great Republican Success" on the economy look weaker.
In an initial social media post from Aug. 1, Trump decried the bureau's findings that only 73,000 jobs were created in July -- a lower number than economists expected. He also condemned the sharply downward revision of jobs numbers from May and June, which totaled 258,000 fewer jobs than previously reported.
Afterward, Trump fired Dr. Erika McEntarfer, the BLS commissioner nominated by former President Joe Biden and who presided over the most recent jobs report. Trump baselessly accused her of fabricating poor numbers for political reasons. (McEntarfer was confirmed by the Senate in 2024 by a bipartisan vote of 86-8.)
Trump has since alleged -- repeatedly and without evidence -- that McEntarfer also "faked" employment numbers in the run-up to the 2024 election in order to improve Democratic candidate Kamala Harris' chances of winning.
In subsequent social media posts and in comments to reporters, Trump has made unsubstantiated claims about the BLS process for conducting and revising jobs reports and the political motivations of McEntarfer in order to benefit Democrats and undermine Republicans. The president has also made inaccurate statements about certain BLS records.
Below is a fact-check on Trump's claims:
False: Jobs report revisions were made before the 2024 election
"In my opinion, today's Jobs Numbers were RIGGED in order to make the Republicans, and ME, look bad — Just like when they had three great days around the 2024 Presidential Election, and then, those numbers were "taken away" on November 15, 2024, right after the Election, when the Jobs Numbers were massively revised DOWNWARD, making a correction of over 818,000 Jobs — A TOTAL SCAM. Jerome "Too Late" Powell is no better! But, the good news is, our Country is doing GREAT!" Trump wrote in a social media post on Aug. 1.
Trump's claim about the timing of the 2024 jobs report revision is incorrect.
In reality, the BLS released a report on Aug. 21, 2024 showing the economy had added 818,000 fewer jobs over the previous year than what had been reported beforehand. This was a decidedly negative reflection of the state of the economy under Biden-Harris and occurred before the election, not after as Trump claimed.
Months after the election, in February 2025, the BLS revised those numbers as previously scheduled, revising the 818,000 figure to 589,000 jobs, meaning fewer jobs were lost than previously thought in the August revision.
That information would have been useful to the Harris campaign before the election, not after. By this point, the election was complete, and Trump was already in the White House. In sum, the opposite of what Trump is alleging had occurred.
False: Recent revisions 'record-setting'
Trump said there were "record setting" revisions to both the jobs numbers from the most recent report and from a year ago, ahead of the 2024 election.
The jobs report issued on Friday included revisions for May and June that were large, but they were not unrivaled.
The two-month revision in last week's jobs report was the largest since 1968 outside of a recession, according to economists at Goldman Sachs. The economy is not currently in a recession according to latest data.
Further, Trump said that after he won the election in November, McEntarfer then "readjusted the numbers downward … of almost one million jobs."
"She had the biggest miscalculations in over 50 years," Trump said.
That's not true.
A 902,000-job benchmark revision in 2009 was larger than revisions from August 2024. The 2009 benchmark revision was just 15 years ago, not over 50.
Trump also wrote in a social media post that before the election, McEntarfer "lifted the numbers for jobs to an all-time high." This is wrong for two reasons. First, BLS reported that right before the election, in a report published on Nov. 1, 2024, total employment was essentially unchanged in the previous month. Also, BLS reports are not generated by one individual -- a team of economists report and compile the data for final publication.
The highest number of recorded jobs ever was during April of 2000, 25 years ago.
What is the US jobs report? Revisions are normal
It's also important to note that revisions to jobs numbers are common.
The BLS is a nonpartisan agency that collects a wide range of employment and price data. Every month, they put out its Employment Situation Summary, also known as the U.S. jobs report.
The jobs report notably revises -- either downward or upward -- the previous two months' jobs totals. This is because the BLS continues to collect payroll data as it's reported. The first numbers are only preliminary.
There are also revisions made based on seasonal adjustments.
In total, the data is revised several times: in both of the two months after the initial jobs report, a preliminary annual revision in August and a final annual revision in February.
Former BLS commissioner says it's "impossible" for a commissioner to manipulate data
William Beach, the former commissioner of the Bureau of Labor Statistics -- nominated by President Trump and who led the agency during his first term -- has disputed Trump's claims that any data was manipulated in bad faith.
Beach told ABC Senior White House Correspondent Selina Wang that it's "impossible" for a BLS commissioner to manipulate the data.
"The commissioner does not even see the numbers … until the numbers are completely done and they're loaded and ready to be distributed," Beach said. "Then the commissioner is briefed Wednesday afternoon prior to the Friday release. And that's the first time the commissioner sees those numbers."
Beach also flatly rejected the notion that recent revisions to the May and June jobs reports were politically motivated.
He confirmed that jobs report revisions are a normal and expected part of the reporting process as more survey data becomes available because businesses continue to provide more information to the government.
"I've never seen a situation where we don't have revisions," Beach said. "These are big revisions because we're probably at a turning point in the economy"
--ABC News' Zunaira Zaki contributed to this report.
