E.J. Antoni, the economist tapped by President Donald Trump to lead the Bureau of Labor Statistics and an architect of the Heritage Foundation’s Project 2025, suggested the agency should suspend monthly jobs reports in a Tuesday television appearance.
Antoni appeared on Fox Business Tuesday morning to discuss Trump’s lack of confidence in the Bureau’s monthly job data.
“How on earth are businesses supposed to plan – or how is the Fed supposed to conduct monetary policy – when they don't know how many jobs are being added or lost in our economy? It's a serious problem that needs to be fixed immediately,” Antoni told FOX Business.
Suspending Job Reports: A Risky Proposition
Trump nominated Antoni to the position after his unprecedented firing of former BLS Chief, Erika McEntarfer, on Aug. 1. The Bureau’s July jobs report showed nonfarm payrolls rising by 73,000, far below economists’ estimates of 110,000.
The report also included a revision of May and June’s tallies, down by over 100,000 each. Similar revisions were observed during the Biden Administration.
“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 added. “Major decision-makers from Wall Street to D.C. rely on these numbers, and a lack of confidence in the data has far-reaching consequences.”
Can Data Integrity Survive Political Pressure?
Trump called the jobs report “rigged” and “fake” following his firing of McEntarfer.
Top economists dismissed Trump and Antoni’s insinuations and reiterated that attempts to erode the independence of reporting agencies could sow distrust in markets.
“[Suspending monthly jobs reports] would [be] a serious mistake in my estimation. It would only fuel critiques of a politicization of job market data and likely result in volatility across asset classes,” RSM US chief economist Joe Brusuelas told Axios.
Withholding or fabricating economic data is a common practice observed in many authoritarian regimes, such as the Soviet Union during the 1980s.
The Dangers Of Distrust In Economic Data
University of Michigan professor Justin Wolfers described Antoni as unqualified for the position in a post on X.
“Antoni finished grad school 5 years ago at Northern Illinois with no obvious distinction, his dissertation is meh, and involved no research on labor markets or data collection, he has never published a paper, and his life’s work has earned 1 citation,” Wolfers said. “This record would be insufficient to earn a job as a junior staffer at BLS.”
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