White House economic advisor Kevin Hassett called Friday’s new jobs report number “a little bit disappointing,” but added, “I expect it’s going to revise up.”
Hassett’s comments on CNBC’s “Squawk on the Street” came shortly after the Bureau of Labor Statistics reported that nonfarm payrolls rose by only 22,000 in August.
That is less than one-third of the 75,000 new jobs expected by economists who were surveyed by Dow Jones ahead of the report.
When Hassett was asked if he was concerned about a sluggish hiring rate, he responded with a personal anecdote.
“Members of my family have been hired,” he said.
“Both of them started their new jobs about a week ago. And so you are seeing that people are being hired.”
Hassett later Friday told Fox News that the BLS has been “struggling with bad response rates” to surveys about jobs.
He also pointed to a Goldman Sachs study on Thursday, which he said shows that August seasonal jobs reports for a decade or more have had to be revised upward by 70,000 or so jobs.
President Donald Trump on Aug. 1 fired BLS Commissioner Erika McEntarfer, accusing her of manipulating jobs report data for political purposes.
McEntarfer was terminated hours after the BLS reported that just 73,000 nonfarm jobs were added in July, which was below market expectations.
BLS on the same day sharply revised downward the previously reported job numbers for June and May.
Earlier Friday, Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick told CNBC’s “Squawk Box” that BLS jobs reports will be more accurate with McEntarfer gone, because “you’ll take out the people who are just trying to create noise against the president.”
