Overview

• President Trump ousted Bureau of Labor Statistics director Erika McEntarfer and nominated E. J. Antoni, chief economist at the Heritage Foundation, to head the agency pending Senate confirmation.
• The July payroll report showed just 73,000 new nonfarm jobs and was followed by downward revisions of 258,000 positions for May and June, prompting Trump’s charge of fabricated numbers.
• Economists warn that a hiring freeze, proposed cuts to about 350 producer‐price‐index data series, falling survey response rates and rising imputations are undermining data quality.
• Former BLS officials and bipartisan experts criticize Antoni’s partisan ties and warn that politicizing the agency could erode confidence in key economic indicators.
• Observers say any loss of trust in BLS statistics could fuel market volatility, spur private data use and complicate Federal Reserve policymaking.