President Donald Trump on Friday said he ordered the firing of Erika McEntarfer, the commissioner of the Bureau of Labor Statistics, following the release of a dismal jobs report that showed lackluster employment growth for July but also revealed large downward revisions for hiring in May and June.

Trump, who took to social media to announce McEntarfer’s ouster, criticized her as a President Joe Biden appointee overseeing what he called “faked” or unreliable jobs numbers, promising she would be replaced with someone “more competent and qualified.” Without evidence, he alleged the jobs numbers had been manipulated for political purposes.

The firing came just hours after the BLS reported that the jobs market was far weaker than previously believed. Large cuts to earlier job counts erased 258,000 positions originally reported for May and June, marking the steepest two-month downward revision on record outside the pandemic. July figures were also below expectations, highlighting an economy struggling under new tariffs and tighter labor conditions.

BLS didn’t immediately respond to a request for comment.

Economists said the outsize changes are less about individual failings and more about reflection of how the government gathers its data. Early versions of the jobs report rely on larger firms that respond quickly, while responses from smaller businesses — often more affected by economic headwinds — filter in later.

As their data is added, job totals have been steadily revised downward, painting a grimmer picture of the labor market than earlier reports suggested. In June, much of the revision was linked to state and local education jobs, whose numbers dropped dramatically after updated data came in.

“A big revision in one jobs report is not a sign of the declining accuracy of federal statistics, especially when there is so much uncertainty and good reasons job numbers are likely to be revised,” said Jed Kolko, a senior fellow with the Peterson Institute for International Economics.

These extraordinary revisions and the sudden removal of a BLS chief could inject more uncertainty into an already volatile labor landscape. The episode underscores questions about the state of the U.S. job market and also about the independence and stability of the federal agencies tasked with reporting the nation’s most critical economic data.

Staffing shortages at the bureau are already fueling questions about the agency’s ability to accurately tabulate data on consumer prices.

Earlier Friday, the bureau said an educational issue may have been the biggest driver of the most-recent revisions. For June alone, the department downwardly revised nonfarm payrolls by 133,000 on a seasonally adjusted basis, “largely the result of routine incorporation of additional/corrected sample that came in after the initial release,” a department spokeswoman said in a written statement. The revision, she added, was concentrated within state and local government education, contributing to about 40 percent of the total downward shift.

June’s report initially showed a gain of 63,500 jobs in that sector, but updated figures released Friday slashed that number to just 7,500 — a sign the earlier spike may have reflected seasonal quirks tied to the school calendar.

The department spokeswoman said monthly revisions have offsetting movements among major industries, meaning some industries see figures revised up while others see downward revisions. But in June, most of the industry revisions were negative, she added.