Overview

• President Donald Trump dismissed BLS Commissioner Erika McEntarfer after a weak July report and has proposed E. J. Antoni as her replacement.
• Deputy Commissioner William J. Wiatrowski is serving as acting head, and Antoni has been formally nominated but not confirmed by the Senate.
• The monthly jobs report relies on decentralized, highly automated employer submissions with strict access limits, and the commissioner does not see the figures until finalization.
• The August payroll reading is preliminary and will be revised twice; May and June totals were cut by a combined 258,000 in last month’s updates.
• Economists say they trust the figures for now, though they warn that ongoing attacks or a confirmed Antoni could erode confidence, and many forecasters expect next week’s preliminary benchmark to show prior overstatement.