Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick predicted that the Bureau of Labor Statistics' Friday jobs report would be more accurate as a result of President Donald Trump firing former Commissioner Erika McEntarfer last month.
That prediction came less than an hour before the latest BLS report showed job growth stalled out in August.
"I think they'll get better," Lutnick told CNBC's "Squawk Box" when asked whether people should believe the BLS' numbers are accurate when the latest monthly jobs report is released.
Trump had fired McEntarfer on Aug. 1, hours after her agency reported that U.S. job growth had significantly slowed in July.
McEntarfer was appointed by former President Joe Biden and confirmed by the Senate in 2024.
The latest BLS report showed nonfarm payrolls rose by just 22,000 in August, far below economists' expectations for 75,000. The unemployment rate also ticked up to 4.3% for the month.
Lutnick said Friday morning that he believed the numbers will be more accurate "because you'll take out the people who are just trying to create noise against the president."
"The holdovers from the Biden administration" were "rooting against America and against Donald Trump, and that's got to end," Lutnick said in response to another question about whether the Trump administration now considers BLS credible.
"So he can't replace somebody two weeks ago, and you expect fundamental change, but what you will get is an agency that's on [Trump's] side, just trying to do the best and put out the correct numbers," he said.
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Trump, asked Thursday night if he could commit to saying that BLS' upcoming jobs data would be credible, declined to do so.
"We'll see what the, the number -- I don't know, they come out tomorrow," Trump said.
"But the real numbers that I'm talking about are going to be whatever it is, but will be in a year from now" when the jobs data will "be absolutely incredible," he claimed.
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