The Treasury Secretary Scott Besent invited the Federal Reserve to change its position on rates after a government agency has revised the employment data in the United States, showing a drop in hires in the year until March. “They should, let’s see if they do it,” he told Fox Business, when he was asked if the Fed had to recalibrate his monetary policy. He quoted the famous economist John Maynard Keynes, who said: “When the facts change, I change his mind: what are you doing?”.
Speaking a few hours after the data reviewed on the occupation showed a drop of 911,000 units in the 12 months until March, Beesent said: “Apparently we had not had reliable data”. In a X post published previously, he said: “President Trump inherited a much worse economy than reported, and is right to say that the Fed is suffocating growth with high rates”.
Markets and analysts provide that the US Central Bank will cut the rates in the monetary policy meeting of 16-17 September.
The data of the labor market
The number of jobs created in the United States from April 2024 to March 2025 was revised downward of 911,000 units from the Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS). This would be equivalent to about 76,000 less jobs created every month of the year until March.
The revision again pays attention to the weakening of the US labor market, which has created only 29,000 jobs on average in each of the last three months. The Report on the occupation of August showed that the United States created only 22,000 jobs in that month and also revised down the employment growth of June, leading it to a loss of 13,000 jobs.
The response of the White House
The White House said in a note that “this is exactly the reason why we need a new leadership to restore trust in the BLS data on behalf of financial markets, businesses, political managers and families who rely on these data to make important decisions”.
BLS data reviews are a normal part of the process and do not suggest any irregularities in data. Annual statistics are revised every year with the additional data collected by the agency, as some of these data are not available at the time of the publication of monthly relationships on employment.
The new data arrive in a hot moment for the Bureau of Labor Statistics. Trump fired the previous head of the BLS a few hours after a weak employment report in August and has appointed a conservative economist, Ej Antoni, as the new head of the agency.
Bessent’s comments on Cook
In the same interview, Besent refused to respond when he was asked if he believed that the governor Lisa Cook-involved in a legal battle against the Trump administration who would like to remove it due to the accusations of mortgage fraud-should not vote at the meeting of 16-17 September.
Yesterday a federal judge temporarily blocked President Trump from removing it. The preliminary sentence of the US district judge Jia Cobb to Washington DC has established that the statements of the Trump administration according to which Cook would have committed mortgage fraud before entering in office were probably not enough reason for its removal.
