Trump BLS Nominee Suggests Nixing Monthly Jobs Report

WASHINGTON ― President Donald Trump’s nominee to head the Bureau of Labor Statistics suggested getting rid of the agency’s closely watched monthly jobs estimate after the most recent estimate angered the president.

In an interview with Fox Business published Tuesday, Heritage Foundation chief economist E.J. Antoni claimed the the numbers are unreliable.

“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 said.

Trump fired the previous head of the BLS, Erika McEntarfer, after an unfavorable employment situation report for the month of July, which included downward revisions to estimates for May and June.

Trump said the numbers were “rigged” to embarrass him, a claim for which the White House has come up with absolutely no evidence whatsoever.

Instead of amplifying Trump’s conspiracy theory, Antoni told Fox Business the BLS surveys of businesses are unreliable due to lower response rates since the coronavirus pandemic.

“The fact that you consistently have large downward revisions means that there are other things wrong with your models and methodologies. Statistical assumptions that may have worked fine before COVID no longer work in today’s economy and therefore need to be revised,” he said.

The monthly job reports always include revisions to prior months’ data as more survey responses come in. Revisions can be both positive or negative, but have been negative each month of 2025. Economists say revisions can become larger in times of economic change, such as before a recession, which some have warned could happen as a result of Trump’s tariff policy.

This is a developing story. Please check back for updates.

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