The hunt for a new BLS head is on.
Help Wanted
The Wall Street Journal reports a $195,000 Search Is Underway for an economist able to walk a political minefield.
President Trump says he plans to announce a new commissioner for the Bureau of Labor Statistics in the coming days after he fired Erika McEntarfer from the job hours after the release of a dismal July jobs report Friday. The president “wants his own people there,” National Economic Council Director Kevin Hassett said on NBC’s “Meet the Press” on Sunday.
Being a Trump loyalist is a departure from the traditional job description. Carroll Wright, the country’s first BLS commissioner, described the agency’s role in 1904 as “the fearless publication of the facts.” The job, which pays a minimum of $195,000 a year, has typically gone to a labor economist with prior experience in government or academia. Most commissioners have been accomplished statisticians and scholars themselves.
The BLS commissioner’s biggest responsibility? Oversee the gathering of data that corporations, investors and policymakers rely on to inform decisions large and small. That includes some of the most closely watched economic indicators, such as federal and state unemployment rates, job creation and inflation.
The commissioner’s interaction with the president is indirect: The BLS shares important data with the White House’s Council of Economic Advisers a day before the information is released to the public. The Council then writes a memo for the president to review. [So no, the Fed did not have the jobs report when its meeting was Wednesday with the job report two days later on Friday].
“All commissioners have to learn that when they’re asked questions about policy, frankly, they don’t answer them,” said Keith Hall, who was appointed commissioner by George W. Bush and served most of his term under Obama.
The BLS commissioner’s executive level is determined by Congress, and the pay rate for that level is published by the Office of Personnel Management. In 2024, that base pay was set by executive order at $195,200.
“There’s a big difference in Washington that I didn’t appreciate before I got there between political appointees of the president, who are in charge of advancing the president’s policy agenda, and the term appointees who are intended to be subject matter experts in charge of scientific and technical operations,” said Erica Groshen, who served as BLS commissioner during President Barack Obama’s second term.
Groshen’s advice to the next commissioner? “Do everything you can to show that the traditional BLS culture is preserved, one that values objectivity and accuracy above all else. And walk in there expecting to trust the civil servants who have served the country so well.”
Groshen’s Advice Translated
Expect to be fired.
A competent messenger will not change the news or make political statements.
However, Trump does not want the news unless it’s good.
Trump Says the Data Was Rigged
Competing Rigging Theories
- Somehow with all this rigging going on, for many months, with hundreds of BLS personal collecting data, everyone of them is in on the scam. They take orders from the man at the top, and 100 percent of them are Biden loyalist cheats, so no one will yap.
- Trump, as usual, blames anyone but himself.
On August 2, I asked Did Trump Fire the BLS Head for Cause, Being the Messenger, or Something Else?
“The process of obtaining the numbers is decentralized by design to avoid opportunities for interference.”
The answer of course is being the messenger.
Please note the above sentence does not imply all is well at the BLS.
I discussed many major issues in the above link. Serious flaws include the Birth-Death model, sampling errors, and QCEW numbers that should be seasonally adjusted but aren’t.
There are also staff issues that DOGE made worse.
What’s the Mission?
If the new BLS chief’s primary mission is to fix the flaws, is given the resources to do so, and will be told to operate independently, then there’s a good case for a change (just not the way Trump went about doing it).
If the mission is to artificially improve or lie about the numbers or make Bidenesque excuses for the numbers, then change was not warranted in any sense.
Expect This to Backfire on Trump
It will be amusing to see how fast Trump replaces the BLS chief.
But that won’t improve the numbers. Nor will it improve trust.
Hoot of the Day
Trump says the economy is doing fine and the job weakness is rigged.
But if the weakness is rigged, then what’s the case for a Fed rate cut?
Price data isn’t weakening,
The crying baby wants it both ways. Jobs are rigged by the BLS to look weak, but they are really strong. Yet, too-late Powell should be cutting. What a hoot.
How many caught this bit of hypocritical nonsense?
Related Posts
July 31, 2025: No Improvement in the Fed’s Preferred Measure of Inflation for 8 Months
Core PCE is up 2.8 percent from a year ago, no change in 8 months.
The PCE is a BEA price measure, not BLS.
August 1, 2025: Payroll Disaster, Jobs Rise 73,000 but Massive Negative Revisions
Monthly Revisions
- The change in total nonfarm payroll employment for May was revised down by 125,000, from +144,000 to +19,000
- The change for June was revised down by 133,000, from +147,000 to +14,000.
- With these revisions, employment in May and June combined is 258,000 lower than previously reported.
August 5, 2025: ISM Services Prices Increase 98 Straight Months, Highest Since Oct 2022
The services index is barely above contraction. Prices are another matter.
If Trump is correct, the amazing conclusion is that the ISM must be in cohoots with the BLS and BEA in rigging all the data.
The CPI, PCE, Jobs reports, and the ISM are all rigged!
And not a soul has stepped forward to disclose how. Wow.
