Donald Trump's move to fire the head of the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics has put trust in U.S. data reporting mechanisms on the line just as demand for reliable diagnoses of the health of the world's largest economy is bigger than ever.

The monthly jobs report is already closely-watched on Wall Street and in Washington but has taken on a new importance after President Donald Trump on Friday fired the official who oversees it.

And on Friday, when the July jobs report revisions showed a distressed economy, Trump had an answer: He fired the official in charge of the data and called the report of a sharp slowdown in hiring “phony.