WASHINGTON ― President Donald Trump’s nominee to head the Bureau of Labor Statistics suggested getting rid of the agency’s closely watched monthly jobs estimate after the most recent estimate angered the president.
In an interview with Fox Business published Tuesday, Heritage Foundation chief economist E.J. Antoni claimed the the numbers are unreliable.
“Until it is corrected, the BLS should suspend issuing the monthly job reports but keep publishing the more accurate, though less timely, quarterly data,” Antoni said.
Trump fired the previous head of the BLS, Erika McEntarfer, after an unfavorable employment situation report for the month of July, which included downward revisions to estimates for May and June.
Trump said the numbers were “rigged” to embarrass him, a claim for which the White House has come up with absolutely no evidence whatsoever.
