You're probably here because of the Sep 2025 rerun. This is the 6th time since 2016 (archive start) this story has run. The previous rerun was Aug 2025.
About this story
Since at least 2015, public figures have repeatedly said that official US jobs data, especially the Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) monthly employment report and its revisions, is "phony," "fake," "rigged" or manipulated. Donald Trump has made the claim most often: about the unemployment rate during his 2016 campaign, about the 818,000-job preliminary revision in August 2024, and in August 2025, when he fired BLS Commissioner Erika McEntarfer. Members of his administration made related claims in 2017 and after a 911,000-job preliminary revision in September 2025. Fact-checkers reported finding no evidence of manipulation, and former BLS commissioners appointed by George W. Bush and by Trump said the numbers cannot be rigged. PolitiFact described the annual benchmark revision as a "standard, annual data-refinement process."
Sources:
1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6
Rerun #6
Sep 2025 The 911,000-job preliminary revision
On Sept. 9, 2025, BLS estimated that job growth in the 12 months ending March 2025 had been overstated by 911,000 jobs. NPR said this was "the largest such preliminary revision on record, going back to 2000." That day, Labor Secretary Lori Chavez-DeRemer said the revision "gives the American people even more reason to doubt the integrity of data being published by BLS." She added that the data must be "never altered for political gain." Vice President JD Vance posted on X: "It's difficult to overstate how useless BLS data had become." NPR reported that the White House "was quick to claim vindication," and PolitiFact reported that it pointed to the revision as "justification for firing BLS Commissioner Erika McEntarfer on Aug. 1." The White House said: "Biden's economy was a disaster and the BLS is broken." NPR reported that Trump had made that firing while "claiming without evidence that the agency was manipulating the numbers." Michael Strain of the conservative American Enterprise Institute wrote on X: "There is no political bias at work in the revision" (PolitiFact). PolitiFact also described known limits of the estimates, including the "birth-death model" used for payroll figures and "declining response rates by employers who take part in the payroll surveys."
- dol.gov
statement
Today's massive downward revision gives the American people even more reason to doubt the integrity of data being published by BLS.
- NPR
article
It's difficult to overstate how useless BLS data had become. A change was necessary [to] restore confidence,
- PolitiFact
article
There is no political bias at work in the revision
Sources:
dol.gov needs a second source · NPR reliable · PolitiFact reliable
Rerun #5
Aug 2025 "RIGGED" July jobs report and the firing of BLS Commissioner Erika McEntarfer
On Aug. 1, 2025, the Bureau of Labor Statistics reported that payroll employment rose by 73,000 in July and revised May and June down by a combined 258,000 (CBS; FactCheck.org). In a 2:09 p.m. Truth Social post that day, Trump wrote that McEntarfer "faked the Jobs Numbers before the Election" and announced she would be fired (FactCheck.org). In remarks to reporters on Aug. 1 he called the figures "phony" (FactCheck.org). In a later Truth Social post he wrote that "today's Jobs Numbers were RIGGED" and pointed to "a correction of over 818,000 Jobs" (NBC; PolitiFact). In a CNBC interview on Aug. 5 he said "The numbers were rigged" and described a revision of "almost 900,000 jobs" (PolitiFact). PolitiFact reported that BLS released the 818,000 preliminary revision on Aug. 21, 2024, "long before any American had cast a ballot"; FactCheck.org placed it in "late August 2024 — well before the election." Both reported that the final revision, published in February 2025, was -589,000. Kathy Utgoff, a BLS commissioner appointed by George W. Bush, told FactCheck.org that commissioners "can't rig the numbers," and William Beach, BLS commissioner in Trump's first term, said rigging is "not possible, and it's not possible by design" (PolitiFact).
- NBC News
article
In my opinion, today's Jobs Numbers were RIGGED in order to make the Republicans, and ME, look bad.
- factcheck.org
article
The president claimed McEntarfer "faked the Jobs Numbers before the Election to try and boost Kamala's chances of Victory," and he questioned the most recent job figures.
- PolitiFact
article
The numbers were rigged. Biden wasn't doing well.
Sources:
PolitiFact reliable · factcheck.org reliable · NBC News reliable · cbsnews.com reliable
Rerun #4
Aug 2024 The 818,000-job preliminary revision
On Aug. 21, 2024, BLS announced a preliminary estimate that jobs added in the 12 months through March 2024 would be revised down by 818,000. FactCheck.org reported that BLS called this a -0.5% adjustment, larger than the 10-year average of plus or minus 0.1%. The same day, Trump said in North Carolina: "It really isn't a revision, it's a total lie" (FactCheck.org). PolitiFact reported that he shared a Truth Social post that day saying the administration had been "caught fraudulently manipulating Job Statistics." FactCheck.org reported that BLS had announced the Aug. 21 release date on July 5, and that a 2019 revision under Trump lowered jobs by 514,000. Economists across the ideological spectrum, including center-right and liberal economists quoted by PolitiFact, and an economist quoted by FactCheck.org, said they saw no evidence of manipulation.
- poynter.org
article
MASSIVE SCANDAL! The Harris-Biden Administration has been caught fraudulently manipulating Job Statistics
- factcheck.org
article
It really isn't a revision, it's a total lie, total lie. There's never been any revision like this.
- poynter.org
article
I want to address the fake job numbers the Harris-Biden administration has been reporting for the last year.
Sources:
factcheck.org reliable · poynter.org needs a second source
Rerun #3
Mar 2017 White House: jobs numbers "may have been phony in the past, but it's very real now"
On March 10, 2017, the BLS reported 235,000 jobs added in February and unemployment at 4.7%, down from 4.8%. That afternoon a reporter noted that Trump had called earlier jobs reports "phony" or "totally fiction." Spicer answered: "I talked to the President prior to this, and he said to quote him very clearly -- 'They may have been phony in the past, but it's very real now.'" On March 12, Mulvaney said on CNN's "State of the Union" that "the Obama administration was manipulating the numbers" to make the unemployment rate "look smaller than it actually was." FactCheck.org reported that Mulvaney gave no evidence for this, even when pressed. CNN reported that BLS methods had not changed, and a BLS spokeswoman told FactCheck.org there had been "no changes in how the unemployment rate is calculated" during the periods in question.
- presidency.ucsb.edu
statement
They may have been phony in the past, but it's very real now.
- CNN
article
The numbers haven't changed, nor has the Bureau of Labor Statistics' methodology for compiling them
- money.cnn.com
article
We've thought for a long time, I did, that the Obama administration was manipulating the numbers, in terms of the number of people in the workforce, to make the unemployment rate -- that percentage rate -- look smaller than it actually was.
Sources:
CNN reliable · cnbc.com reliable · factcheck.org reliable · The Hill reliable
Rerun #2
Aug 2016 Trump calls the 5% unemployment figure "one of the biggest hoaxes in modern politics" (Detroit Economic Club speech)
On Aug. 8, 2016, Trump laid out his economic plan in a speech at the Detroit Economic Club. A transcript of the speech (p2016.org) lists household and labor-force figures, then says: "These are the real unemployment numbers – the five percent figure is one of the biggest hoaxes in modern politics." Fortune reported that Trump "argued in a speech on the economy that the unemployment rate, published once a month by the Labor Department, is a 'hoax.'" Fortune also wrote that Trump "hasn't offered any evidence for this assertion" and had claimed the "real" rate was anywhere from 18% to 42% during the campaign. Fortune gave the official rate at the time as 4.9%. It explained that this rate (U-3) leaves out people who have stopped looking for work and part-timers who want full-time jobs. It also noted that the Labor Department publishes a separate measure, the employment-population ratio, for the share of adults without a job.
- p2016.org
statement
These are the real unemployment numbers – the five percent figure is one of the biggest hoaxes in modern politics.
- fortune.com
article
Trump hasn't offered any evidence for this assertion
Sources:
fortune.com reliable · p2016.org needs a second source
Rerun #1
Feb 2016 Trump calls the unemployment rate "phony numbers" in his New Hampshire primary victory speech
In his New Hampshire primary victory speech on Feb. 9, 2016, Trump said: "Don't believe those phony numbers when you hear 4.9 and 5 percent unemployment. The number's probably 28, 29, as high as 35. In fact, I even heard recently 42 percent." That calls the official BLS unemployment rate "phony," which is the thread's core claim. FactCheck.org gave the official rate as 4.9 percent for January 2016. PolitiFact said U-6, which counts the unemployed plus the underemployed, was 9.9 percent, and that "none of the official ones" was higher; FactCheck.org called U-6 the "most comprehensive" measure. FactCheck.org reported that Trump had made versions of the 42 percent claim several times since mid-2015.
- factcheck.org
article
Trump has floated this 40-something number several times, most recently in his victory speech after winning the New Hampshire Republican primary
- PolitiFact
article
none of the official ones are currently higher than 9.9 percent, and the highest credible number we could calculate was 15.6 percent
- youtube.com
video
Sources:
factcheck.org reliable · PolitiFact reliable · CNN reliable · ABC News reliable
