E. J. Antoni, Ph.D., Former Economist, Texas Public Policy Foundation
Courtesy: Texas Public Policy Foundation
Heritage Foundation economist E. J. Antoni, who President Donald Trump picked Monday to lead the Bureau of Labor Statistics, recently floated the idea of the BLS suspending its traditional monthly jobs reports.
Antoni, in an interview last week with Fox News Digital, questioned the accuracy of those monthly reports, which are key economic indicators that Wall Street investors and economists rely upon to assess the health of the U.S. labor market.
“How on earth are businesses supposed to plan – or how is the Fed supposed to conduct monetary policy – when they don’t know how many jobs are being added or lost in our economy?” Antoni said in that interview, which occurred days before Trump said he would nominate him
“It’s a serious problem that needs to be fixed immediately,” said Antoni at the time.
“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’s comments came after Trump abruptly fired Erika McEntarfer as BLS Commissioner on Aug. 1.
Trump claimed the agency under her leadership had “rigged” the jobs reports for political purposes.
Trump’s decision, which drew strong pushback from economists and former BLS employees, came hours after the agency reported slower-than-anticipated job growth in July.
The report also included downward revisions of the number of jobs created in the two previous months.
Trump pointed to the changes, which are common in job reports, to claim that the agency manipulated the data.
The White House on Tuesday defended Trump’s selection of Antoni.
Press secretary Karoline Leavitt acknowledged that he “floated the idea of possibly suspending until they can get the data and the methodology in order.”
“This president wants to ensure that the BLS again is putting out accurate and honest data,” Leavitt said.
She also said Trump “trusts him to lead this important department.”