Brett Matsumoto, President Trump’s pick to lead the Bureau of Labor Statistics, wants to reshape how the government counts things. Specifically, he wants to supplement (or in some cases replace) the traditional surveys that underpin everything from the Consumer Price Index to jobs reports with alternative data sources like scanner data and web-scraped prices.
A nominee shaped by the agency’s problems
Matsumoto is a career BLS economist who was serving on the Council of Economic Advisers when Trump nominated him on January 30, 2026. The Senate received that nomination on May 19, 2026, with a confirmation hearing expected sometime after June 3.
His predecessor, Erika McEntarfer, was fired in August 2025 following revisions to key jobs reports. The agency’s problems go deeper than personnel, though. BLS funding has declined over 22% from 2010 to 2025, and staff has been reduced by nearly 25% over a similar period. A 2025 government shutdown further disrupted operations, leading to the suspension of some key economic reports.
Matsumoto’s research directly addresses this resource crunch. He co-authored a BLS working paper in July 2025 that examined how alternative data sources could improve CPI accuracy while potentially reducing the agency’s dependence on expensive, labor-intensive survey methods.
