Response rates to government surveys have plummeted since COVID, but experts say that doesn't mean the numbers are wrong despite Trump's claims.

President Donald Trump fired the head of the Bureau of Labor Statistics over a recent report, which also slashed June's new construction jobs by 90%.

President Trump fired the head of the Bureau of Labor Statistics last week and described a jobs report that included a big downward revision as “rigged.”

But Trump’s firing of the BLS chief escalated his administration’s attack on information. Though researchers who rely on federal economic data say it’s too early to declare U.S. economic data untrustworthy, public trust in these essential information collection systems has been weakened.

The US president sacked BLS commissioner Erika McEntarfer hours after the agency on Friday published a gloomy July jobs report, saying the data had been “totally rigged” because of big downward revisions to the two previous months.