Trump BLS Nominee Suggests Nixing Monthly Jobs Report [View all]

Source: Huffington Post

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.

“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.

“The fact that you consistently have large downward revisions means that there are other things wrong with your models and methodologies. Statistical assumptions that may have worked fine before COVID no longer work in today’s economy and therefore need to be revised,” he said.

The monthly job reports always include revisions to prior months’ data as more survey responses come in. Revisions can be both positive or negative, but have been negative each month of 2025. Economists say revisions can become larger in times of economic change, such as before a recession, which some have warned could happen as a result of Trump’s tariff policy.

Read more: https://www.huffpost.com/entry/ej-antoni-bls-trump-jobs-report-suspend_n_689b677ee4b09184403ef04e