Overview

• President Trump’s nominee, E.J. Antoni, is advancing in the Senate after suggesting the BLS suspend its monthly report in favor of quarterly data and drawing scrutiny for his partisan ties.
• Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick dismissed statistical independence as “nonsense,” fueling concerns of political interference in federal economic reporting.
• Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent publicly rejected ending the monthly jobs release after Antoni’s proposal sparked controversy.
• Women’s advocacy groups report that 200,000 women have left the labor force since January and warn that withholding monthly data could conceal worsening trends for mothers and women of color.
• The BLS has reduced Consumer Price Index data collection by 19 percent and faces an additional 8 percent budget cut despite increasing calls for timely, disaggregated labor statistics.