Is the PBS News Hour so “surprised” about the latest strong job market report under President Trump that it suspects a Trumpian plot to fudge the numbers? Look at co-anchor Amna Nawaz questioning economist Diana Swonk.
Geoff Bennett: There was surprising strength in the latest jobs report. Employers added 172,000 jobs last month, the third straight month of gains, 93,000 more jobs were added in March and April than previously estimated, and the unemployment rate stayed at 4.3 percent.
Amna Nawaz: Overall, the labor market appears strong, despite concerns about the war in Iran, rising prices and artificial intelligence.
After a celebratory soundbite from Kevin Hassett, the director of the White House National Economic Council, Nawaz turned to Diane Swonk, chief economist at accounting giant KPMG. She relayed the same aura of surprise at the positive figures.
Nawaz: So, Diane, this was an unexpectedly positive jobs report. How big a deal is this?
Swonk was less than enthusiastic.
Diane Swonk, Chief Economist, KPMG: ….Almost all the job gains that we saw were concentrated in the service sector. And I think it's important to look at what's under the hood, is, even as good as those numbers looked, we still saw very elevated numbers of what we call the underemployed, those having to take part-time, instead of full-time work or discouraged workers. And the duration of unemployment continued to rise.
PBS's Nawaz to economist Diane Swonk: "I have to ask you. There's a lot of concern after President Trump fired the head of the Bureau of Labor Statistics about whether or not numbers could be trusted moving forward. Is there any reason to doubt the data that we have seen today?" pic.twitter.com/EtbBLvnQjn
— Clay Waters 🇮🇱 (@claywaters44) June 8, 2026
Nawaz worked in her skepticism of government numbers (something the left has long chastised the right for raising):
Nawaz: And, Diane, I have a couple of seconds left, but I have to ask you. There's a lot of concern after President Trump fired the head of the Bureau of Labor Statistics about whether or not numbers could be trusted moving forward. Is there any reason to doubt the data that we have seen today?
Swonk: The data is as good as it can be at this point in time, and I think that's the important thing. These are bureaucrats. They have worked on this data for a long time. I will note, though, we have -- the level of employment in the federal sector is now at its lowest level since 1966. And due to the firings and retirements and quits that we saw last year, we have lost 350,000 workers in the federal agencies since October 2024. That has left staffing shortages, which makes it harder to do the quality that we want from the statistical agencies.
BLS head Erica McEntarfer was fired in August 2025, but for some reason Nawaz failed to bring up her firing during a March 2026 PBS News Hour interview with Swonk about February’s monthly jobs report, when the economic numbers weren’t so good. Instead Nawaz leaned into the bad news with no qualifying doubts.
Nawaz: Let’s turn now to the economy and a disappointing new jobs report today showing employers cut 92,000 jobs in February. The report also included downward revisions for the previous two months and a slight rise in the unemployment rate from 4.3 to 4.4 percent. Altogether, it paints a picture of a labor market struggling across a number of sectors, including some that were engines of recent growth, like health care and construction. Stocks fell on the news, capping a week of declines, along with a rapid rise in oil and gas prices, a result of President Trump`s war with Iran….So with the usual caveat it`s important not to overreact to one month of data, the losses in today`s report were widespread. What does all this tell you about the economy?
