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The Labor Department’s inner watchdog stated Wednesday it has opened an investigation into how jobs and inflation data is collected by the Bureau of Labor Statistics.
The probe by the division’s Office of Inspector General comes as BLS is beneath strain from the Trump administration, which has pointed to latest downward revisions to employment data to argue that the company’s data can’t be trusted.
President Donald Trump fired BLS Commissioner Erika McEntarfer in August, accusing her of being motivated by politics hours after her company launched a weak month-to-month jobs report.
The inspector basic is a nonpolitical appointee whose workplace is independently staffed and legally insulated from interference by the Labor secretary or different political appouintees. The workplace is presently being led by performing deputy Inspector General Michael Mikulka, in accordance the Labor Department’s web site.
In a letter despatched Wednesday morning, the watchdog stated it “is initiating a review of the challenges” that BLS “encounters collecting and reporting closely watched economic data.”
The OIG stated it was initiating that probe after BLS introduced a discount in its data assortment for 2 key inflation metrics, the buyer value index and the producer price index.
The evaluation additionally is available in gentle of BLS just lately issuing a “massive downward revision of its estimate of latest jobs within the month-to-month Employment Situation Report,” assistant inspector basic for audit Laura Nicolosi wrote.
The Labor Department in a preliminary report Tuesday revised jobs data sharply downward for the yr ending March 2025, posting a drop of 911,000 from preliminary estimates. The revisions had been the most important on document in additional than 20 years.
Nicolosi wrote Wednesday that the OIG’s “focus will be on the challenges and related mitigating strategies for (1) collecting PPI and CPI data, and (2) collecting and reporting, including revising, monthly employment data.”
The letter was addressed to William Wiatrowski, who has served as BLS’ performing commissioner since Trump fired McEntarfer on Aug. 1, hours after BLS issued a weaker-than-expected month-to-month jobs report for July.
The transfer shocked some specialists, who warned that it undermined confidence within the integrity of the monetary statistics which can be closely relied upon by traders and policymakers alike.
But Trump and his supporters defended McEntarfer’s removing, arguing that BLS’ data had turn out to be more and more unreliable and claiming its actions had been politicized.
They have pointed to earlier massive revisions by the company, although Trump has mischaracterized those figures and once they had been launched.
Labor Secretary Lori Chavez-DeRemer stated Tuesday that the BLS’ newest downward revision “gives the American people even more reason to doubt the integrity of data being published.”
“It’s imperative for the data to remain accurate, impartial, and never altered for political gain,” DeRemer stated.
— CNBC’s Greg Iacurci contributed to this report.