Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent on Wednesday said that he doesn’t think the Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) needs to pause monthly jobs report releases because of instances of large revisions in the data in subsequent reports.
Bessent was interviewed on “Bloomberg Surveillance” and he was asked about comments made by Heritage Foundation chief economist EJ Antoni, who has been nominated as BLS commissioner, that the agency should suspend issuing the monthly report and just release quarterly data.
“Not at all,” Bessent replied when asked if that is something he would support.
“What somebody says when they’re a private citizen is very different. You know, I called for a shadow Fed chair, and now that I’m in this seat, I don’t think that we need to do that,” he added.
TRUMP’S PICK TO LEAD LABOR STATS AGENCY COULD PAUSE MONTHLY JOBS REPORT OVER ACCURACY CONCERNS
Antoni said in an interview with Fox News Digital on Aug. 4 that until the BLS improves the jobs report data collection process, the agency “should suspend issuing the monthly job reports but keep publishing the more accurate, though less timely, quarterly data.” He went on to add that decision-makers “from Wall Street to D.C. rely on these numbers, and a lack of confidence in the data has far-reaching consequences.”
“I was there when EJ was interviewed, and he is incredibly qualified,” Bessent said. “I think the most important thing here is that we get back to the integrity of the numbers, because it just became OK – just like so many things in our government – for it to get sloppy.”
“EJ is precise, he has a doctorate in economics. I think President Trump put a lot of thought into this, he was very thorough in his questioning of him. So what we want is good data, because you can’t make good decisions without good data,” Bessent said. “It’s very likely that the Fed would have been doing something else in June, in July, if they had had this data.”
FORMER BLS COMMISSIONER SAYS THERE ARE BETTER WAYS TO COLLECT DATA FOR JOBS REPORTS
Bessent was asked about how the data collection process for the jobs report can be improved and said, “This idea that we’re accepting mediocrity in government – why don’t we bring things into the 21st century, why don’t we bring it into the digital age?”
“I don’t know about political bias one way or the other, but what I can tell you is that the sample response size kept getting smaller and smaller, and then they filled in the cells. And any time you get judgment versus data, then things become qualitative and not quantitative,” he said.
“I think EJ’s going to do a great job of bringing back quantitative standards,” Bessent said.
Antoni will have to navigate the Senate confirmation process to become BLS commissioner.
WHY DOES THE LABOR DEPARTMENT REVISE JOBS REPORTS? HERE ARE 3 REASONS
The BLS was thrust into the spotlight after the release of the weaker-than-expected July jobs report, which showed just 73,000 jobs added – well below the 110,000 estimate of LSEG economists – while employment in May and June was revised downward by 258,000 jobs.
President Donald Trump fired BLS Commissioner Erika McEntarfer, claiming that the jobs data was subject to political manipulation.
The BLS’ data collection process is designed with revisions in place to improve the accuracy of data over time as more of the sample is reported. For example, the monthly jobs report includes revisions for the prior two months to give a more accurate read on the data as more employers send in their information.
That gives the public the opportunity to get a timely, initial sense of economic conditions with the first release, then a more complete picture emerges with the first and second revisions.
Response rates to the initial survey have declined over the last decade, and with smaller initial samples it can lead to larger revisions – particularly during times of economic volatility.
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