WASHINGTON ― President Donald Trump's nominee to be the new U.S. commissioner of Labor Statistics recently suggested the agency stop issuing monthly jobs reports until the methodology used to compute the figures is changed.
E.J. Antoni, a Heritage Foundation economist who Trump tapped on Aug. 11 to replace the Bureau of Labor Statistics commissioner he fired, proposed the idea during an Aug. 4 interview to Fox News Digital. He questioned the agency's methodology and economic assumptions because of recent jobs revisions, calling it a "serious problem that needs to be fixed immediately."
"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. "Major decision-makers from Wall Street to DC rely on these numbers, and a lack of confidence in the data has far-reaching consequences."
More: Trump names conservative economist E.J. Antoni to lead Bureau of Labor Statistics
If confirmed by the Senate, Antoni would replace Erika McEntarfer, an appointment of former President Joe Biden who Trump fired on Aug. 1. Trump accused McEntarfer without evidence of manipulating data for "political purposes" after the Bureau of Labor Statistics reported the U.S. added a disappointing 73,000 jobs in July. Trump also complained about revisions that reduced job gains in May and June by about 258,000 and portrayed a much weaker labor market than Trump has touted.
