‘Something Wrong Here’: Scott Bessent Says BLS Took ‘Lazy Way’ Of Collecting ‘Corrupted’ Data

Secretary of the Treasury Scott Bessent said during a “Morning Joe” interview Thursday that the Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) used “corrupted” data leading to massive mistakes in initial job estimates.

The BLS reported only 73,000 jobs were created in July, while figures from May and June were revised downward despite Gross Domestic Product (GDP) growing by 3% in the second quarter, leading President Donald Trump to fire Commissioner of Labor Statistics Erika McEntarfer. Bessent compared the errors in the BLS to a plane flying off course.

“I think that this was long overdue. I mean, the mistake that they made last week was a five to six standard deviation mistake,” Bessent told “Morning Joe” co-host Mika Brzezinski. “This is like if you got on a plane in Miami, thought you were going to New York and landed in Denver. I mean, so I actually think that cleaning up the BLS was something that should have been done long ago.”

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A standard deviation is a measure of variability in how far a set of figures is from the average, according to Math.net. The Biden administration admitted in August 2024 that it overestimated job creation by over 800,000 jobs.