White House hopes that monthly American jobs continue despite the complaint of labor statistics.
Donald Trump’s selection as the next Commissioner of the American Labor Statistics Office (BLS) threatens to bring a new level of politicization to the fact that for decades has been a non -partisan agency publishing reports on the country’s economic health, according to Democrats and certain economists.
While many former officials of the Labor Department say that it is unlikely that as a commissioner of the Department’s Labor Statistics Office, EJ Antoni is able to distort or modify economic data, it could change the way in which it is presented.
Antoni was appointed by Trump after the BLS published a job report on August 1 which showed that hiring was weakened in July and was much lower in May and June that the agency had previously reported. Even if the rest of the report contained positive data points for Trump’s White House, the president said, without evidence, that the data had been “faked” for political and licensed reasons, the president of the time, Erika Mcentarfer, who had been set up with the support of the Bipartite Senate.
MCENTARFER’s dismissal was criticized even by certain members of the Republican Congress, notably the Senators Cynthia Lummis of Wyoming and Thom Tillis of North Carolina.
Antoni was a vocal criticism of government jobs in frequent apparitions on podcasts and cable television. He publicly said that the Labor Department should stop publishing monthly job reports until its data collection processes improve and rely on quarterly data according to real employment files with state unemployment offices.
US President Donald Trump dismissed Erika Mcentarfer, commissioner of the Bureau of Labor Statistics, after a report showed that hiring has slowed down in July and was much lower in May and June than before.
Common revisions, included by Wall Street
Monthly employment reports are probably the most watched economic data on Wall Street and can frequently cause stock prices oscillations.
When asked during Tuesday’s White House information if the job report would continue to be published, press secretary Karoline Leavitt said the administration hoped.
“I think it’s the plan and it’s hope,” said Leavitt.
Leavitt also defended the appointment of Antoni, calling him “economic expert” who testified before the congress, adding that “the president trusted him to direct this important department”.
However, Antoni wrongly said in the last year of Joe Biden’s presidency that the economy had been in recession since 2022; called the entire Board of Directors of the Federal Reserve so as not to gain profits on its treasury titles; And published a graphic on social networks that confused deadlines to suggest inflation under Biden was heading around 15%.
Its argument according to which the United States was in recession was based on a largely exaggerated measure of the inflation of the accommodation, on the basis of the prices of newly purchased houses, to artificially reveal the gross domestic product of the smaller country than it was.
“It may be the worst Antoni content that I still saw,” Alan Cole of Center-Right Tax Foundation on social networks on Tuesday, referring to his request for recession.
Many economists share, to a certain extent, Antoni’s concerns that the government’s employment data have faults and are threatened by trends such as the drop in response rates to its surveys. The drop has made jobs more volatile, but not necessarily less precise over time.
“The stock market is clearly evolving on these work numbers, and therefore people with the skin in the game think that that tells them something about the future of their investments,” said Brian Albrecht, chief economist of the International Center for Law and Economics. “Could it be improved? Absolutely.”
Katharine Abraham, economist at the University of Maryland, BLS commissioner under President Bill Clinton, said that the methods of the job report would require at least one initial investment.
The government could use more modern data sources, she said, such as figures for payroll processing companies and filling gaps with surveys.
The UBS economist, Alan Detmeister, estimates that BLS now receives approximately 18% less price quote for the inflation report than earlier this year. He thinks that the report will produce more volatile results, although average over time, always reliable.
Doubts of ex-commissioners may be modified
William Beach, who was appointed BLS commissioner by Trump during his first mandate and also served under Biden, said he was convinced that BLS procedures are strong enough to prevent political interference. He said that when he was a commissioner, he saw the figures himself until two days before the publication.
“The commissioner does not affect the figures,” said Beach. “They don’t collect data. They don’t massage the data.”
Regarding the chances of fueling the figures, Beach said: “I will not put him in a complete Zero, but I will put him close enough.”
President Donald Trump was increasingly critical of the president of the Federal Reserve Jerome Powell. Andrew Chang explains why Trump is so upset by the man he named in 2017 and explores the way the president could try to remove Powell. Images provided by Getty Images, The Canadian Press and Reuters.
Before launching his political career, Trump frequently accused the administration of Barack Obama of making statistics to produce more favorable economic relationships, without providing evidence. As president, Trump frequently assaulted the president of the federal reserve he appointed during his first mandate, Jerome Powell.
Antoni needs confirmation from the Senate.
Senator Patty Murray, a principal democrat, called Senator Bill Cassidy, the republican president of the senatorial committee of health, education, work and pensions, to hold a confirmation audience for Antoni as soon as possible.
It took approximately six months after Mcentarfer was appointed in July 2023 so that it was approved. It was confirmed during a vote of 86-8, which means that it had the support of dozens of republicans.
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