Economists have sounded the alarm about President Donald Trump’s pick to become the next commissioner of the Bureau of Labor Statistics.
Earlier this month Trump sensationally fired the former head of the bureau, Erika McEntarfer, after the release of the July jobs report.
The President claimed, without evidence, that the weak numbers for last month were ‘phony.’
He also accused Biden-appointed McEntarfer of ‘faking’ jobs numbers before the 2024 election to ‘try and boost Kamala’s chances of victory.’
The White House has now nominated E.J. Antoni, a chief economist at the conservative Heritage Foundation, to replace McEntarfer.
‘Our Economy is booming, and E.J. will ensure that the Numbers released are HONEST and ACCURATE,’ Trump said in a Truth Social post.
In an interview with Fox Business, Antoni said the BLS ‘should suspend issuing the monthly job reports’ entirely.
Instead he said it should ‘keep publishing the more accurate, though less timely, quarterly data.’
Trump claimed, without evidence, that the bureau had previously doctored jobs data
President Donald Trump’s pick to run the Bureau of Labor Statistics E.J. Antoni (pictured)
Economist Stan Veuger, a senior fellow at the conservative American Enterprise Institute, told Axios that Antoni’s ‘work at Heritage has frequently included elementary errors or nonsensical choices that all bias his findings in the same partisan direction.’
‘The articles and tweets I’ve seen him publish are probably the most error-filled of any think tank economist right now. I hope we see better at BLS,’ another economist, Jessica Riedl of the Manhattan Institute, agreed.
Earlier this month Manhattan Institute economist, Daniel Di Martino, also called out inaccuracies he believed Antoni to have published.
‘This is one of the many elementary errors that show me Mr. Antoni is unqualified for the labor market data collection and analysis role he was nominated to,’ DiMartino said of a September 2024 post by Antoni.
The post claimed that the unemployment rate was being artificially lowered in official statistics.
A fourth economist, Dave Herbert of the American Institute for Economic Research, also claimed Antoni is not fit to head the BLS.
‘I’ve been on several programs with him and have been impressed by two things: his inability to understand basic economics and the speed with which he’s gone MAGA,’ Herbert told Axios.
‘I can only hope the Senate blocks this,’ Herbert added.
Economist Stan Veuger claims Antoni’s (pictured) ‘work at Heritage has frequently included elementary errors or nonsensical choices that all bias his findings in the same partisan direction’
Trump fired Erika McEntarfer after the release of the July jobs report
Antoni’s nomination from the White House must now be approved by the Senate.
For now, the release of monthly jobs reports has been paused while the bureau prepares to readjust to Antoni’s methodologies, according to the White House.
Experts have warned that political interference at the BLS could undermine confidence that independent agencies are putting out accurate data.
This, in turn, could have damaging effects on trillions of dollar of assets including 401(K)s.
Damaging the BLS’s reputation could mean markets do not trust the economic data it puts out, which affects how they price assets and therefore the overall direction of stock indices.
The July jobs report from the BLS showed that hiring growth dropped dramatically last month and unemployment ticked up.
Non-farm payrolls added 73,000 in July, far lower than the 100,000 expected by analysts. The unemployment rate also ticked up to 4.2 percent.
The report also sharply revised down the figures for May and June by a combined 258,000 jobs from the previously released figures.
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