President Donald Trump's nomination of Dr. EJ Antoni to lead the Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) is facing swift and intense backlash from prominent economists, who are questioning his qualifications and citing a record that includes only one citation for his academic work.
What Happened: The reaction comes just weeks after Trump fired the previous BLS commissioner following a disappointing jobs report.
Jason Furman, former chair of the Council of Economic Advisers, expressed his concern, stating he had never before publicly criticized a presidential nominee.
Furman declared that Antoni is “completely unqualified to be BLS Commissioner. He is an extreme partisan and does not have any relevant expertise.” Furman warned that the nomination “would be a break from decades of nonpartisan technocrats” at the agency.
Justin Wolfers, a professor at the University of Michigan, amplified the critique of Antoni's qualifications.
Wolfers noted that Antoni finished graduate school just five years ago, with a dissertation that included no research on labor markets or data collection.
Wolfers said Antoni “has never published a paper, and his life's work has earned 1 citation.” Wolfers concluded that this record would be “insufficient to earn a job as a junior staffer at BLS.”
Other economists, including Brian Albrecht, highlighted concerns about Antoni's grasp of economic statistics, with one user sharing a post suggesting Antoni misunderstood the import price index.
The timing of the nomination has also drawn speculation. Craig Shapiro proposed a “conspiracy theory” that Trump’s move, after firing the previous commissioner over “faked” numbers, was a preemptive measure to dismiss any negative data releases from the BLS as politically motivated.
Why It Matters: In a Truth Social post, Trump said that the U.S. economy was "booming," and expressed confidence that Antoni would release labor figures that were "honest and accurate."
Antoni, a conservative economist, has a master’s and doctoral degrees from Northern Illinois University. As the chief economist at The Heritage Foundation, a think tank known for its connection to Ronald Reagan, Antoni is an expert on the federal budget and has taught various economics courses.
Price Action: The SPDR S&P 500 ETF Trust (NYSE:SPY) and Invesco QQQ Trust ETF (NASDAQ:QQQ), which track the S&P 500 index and Nasdaq 100 index, respectively, were trading lower in premarket on Tuesday. The SPY was down 0.027% at $635.75, while the QQQ declined 0.016% to $572.76, according to Benzinga Pro data.
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