New BLS Chief Antoni suggests pausing monthly job reports
E.J. Antoni, President Donald Trump’s new nominee to lead the Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS), has stirred sharp debate in both Washington and on Wall Street after openly suggesting he may halt the agency’s widely followed monthly jobs report over concerns about its reliability and methodology. Speaking in an interview with Fox Business, Antoni said that unless the report is “corrected,” the BLS “should suspend issuing the monthly job reports but keep publishing the more accurate, though less timely, quarterly data.”
His remarks follow closely on the heels of Trump’s abrupt dismissal of Erika McEntarfer, the former BLS commissioner. McEntarfer was ousted shortly after the release of a July employment report that revealed lackluster job creation alongside steep downward revisions for previous months.
In early August, the BLS reported that U.S. employers had added only 73,000 jobs in July — far below economists’ expectations. Even more troubling for markets were the sharp downward adjustments to earlier data: the agency revised its May and June figures down by a combined 258,000 jobs, showing that each month saw gains of fewer than 20,000 jobs.
Trump, reacting swiftly on social media, accused the agency—without providing evidence—of releasing “rigged” numbers designed to damage his administration and the Republican Party. Within hours, McEntarfer was removed from her post. She had been confirmed by the Senate in 2024 and had served under both Democratic and Republican administrations.
Antoni’s push to suspend monthly reporting
Antoni, who currently serves as chief economist at the Heritage Foundation and is a long-time critic of BLS statistical practices, has called the monthly jobs report “too flawed to serve its intended purpose.” In his Fox Business interview, he argued the data is so unreliable that it risks misleading businesses, policymakers, and the Federal Reserve, all of whom depend on timely and accurate employment figures to guide decisions.
“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?” Antoni asked. “It’s a serious problem that needs to be fixed immediately.”