White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt was pressed on Tuesday after President Donald Trump’s nominee to lead the Bureau of Labor Statistics suggested the agency suspend its monthly jobs report.
Economist E.J. Antoni, ahead of Trump’s nomination announcement on Monday, told Fox News Digital earlier this month that the data behind the longstanding economic practice, which helps determine the health of the economy, is frequently unreliable and overstated.
“How on earth are businesses supposed to plan — or how is the [Federal Reserve] 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, a fellow at the Heritage Foundation conservative think tank, told Fox News Digital.
“Until it is corrected, the BLS should suspend issuing the monthly job reports, but keep publishing the more accurate, though less timely, quarterly data,” he said.
Trump had fired Erika McEntarfer, the commissioner of the agency, at the beginning of the month after a revised July jobs report found that hiring had slowed in July and was much weaker in May and June than previously recorded. Trump accused McEntarfer of manipulating the report for political reasons, calling the updated job numbers “RIGGED in order to make the Republicans, and ME, look bad.”
During her White House press briefing, Leavitt was asked by a reporter about whether Americans should trust inflation reports, also released by the BLS, amid accusations that its jobs data isn’t “reliable.” The agency reported on Tuesday that inflation remained steady in July, with consumer prices rising 0.2%, keeping the annual inflation rate at 2.7%.
“Well look, the jobs data has had massive revisions,” Leavitt said. “We want to ensure that all of the data — the inflation data, the jobs data, any data point that is coming out of the BLS — is trustworthy and is accurate, which is why the president had restored new leadership at the BLS."
Social media users had pointed to how revisions to jobs data is not uncommon. Meanwhile, the updated July report marked the largest two-month downward revision to the numbers since 1968.
The jobs report is based on a collection of answers from voluntary survey respondents in both households and businesses. While some may immediately reply, others may choose to report data later. While the BLS issues its initial report to relay employment information in a timely manner, the figures become more accurate as data is collected over time, making it subject to later up or down revisions. The BLS has released employment data, in some form, since 1915 under the Current Employment Statistics program.
“The jobs data is always revised. That’s literally the system,” Fred Wellman, a host of MediasTouch’s “On Democracy” podcast, wrote on X, adding “She is lying. This is all lies. She knows she is lying."
Someone wrote, "Pretty sure Americans can see the rising prices in the stores. Not to mention the jobs numbers are ALWAYS revised."
Others praised the reporter for asking the question.
Leavitt was also asked whether suspending the monthly reports is a "real option."
"He floated the idea of possibly suspending until they can get the data and methodology in order, and this president wants to ensure that the BLS, again, is putting out accurate and honest data that the American people can trust," Leavitt said, before citing Antoni’s credentials.
One user joked: "They’re going to suspend monthly job reports because they’re so f------ bad."
“We got the last honest job report we will ever see,” another user said.
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