Trump’s New BLS Appointment Fuels Concerns Over Data Integrity
A media outlet owned by Rupert Murdoch has expressed skepticism over Donald Trump’s appointment of a new Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) director, following the abrupt firing of the previous commissioner.
E.J. Antoni, currently serving as the chief economist at the conservative Heritage Foundation, has been named as the replacement. Antoni, a key contributor to the Project 2025 initiative for a future MAGA administration, has been advised by the Wall Street Journal to “take off his MAGA hat if he wants to ensure that the public and markets can trust BLS data,” according to an editorial by the paper’s board.
Antoni’s selection comes after Trump terminated Erika McEntarfer, the former BLS commissioner, following disappointing job creation numbers reported in July. The BLS also revised its May-June statistics downward by over 250,000 jobs, sparking accusations from Trump that McEntarfer had manipulated data to discredit Republicans and himself.
Trump defended the appointment by stating, “Our Economy is booming, and E.J. [Antoni] will ensure that the Numbers released are HONEST and ACCURATE.” Antoni’s first action following his new role was to propose eliminating the monthly jobs reports that led to McEntarfer’s dismissal.
United States Department of Labor
The Wall Street Journal editorial suggests that the controversy surrounding this decision has not benefited Trump or Antoni, as downward revisions in labor statistics are not uncommon. Under the Biden administration, estimated employment figures were reduced by nearly 600,000 in March 2024, and under the Obama administration, by almost a million in March 2009.
The paper attributes these revisions to “a result of declining business survey response rates that require [BLS] statisticians to rely more on models and guesswork,” thus making the numbers susceptible to change as more data becomes available.
McEntarfer’s firing has led to widespread criticism from those who argue that Trump is politicizing the BLS’s data reporting, raising concerns that future reports may need to align with the president’s preferences.
The editorial questions Antoni’s ability to improve data reliability, stating, “Criticizing the BLS as Mr. Antoni has from the back benches is easy, but what is his plan to make the data more reliable?” It adds, “Mr Antoni’s commentary at Heritage has been highly partisan, but the BLS job demands nonpartisan professionalism.”
Despite Antoni’s past skepticism of BLS data, the WSJ notes that he has used these statistics to suggest that Trump’s immigration policies have boosted employment for birthright Americans by reducing “artificially cheap labor” in the U.S. economy.
