President Trump plans to call conservative economist E.J. Antoni to move the Bureau of Labor Statistics. Trump fired the bureau’s earlier chief after a disappointing jobs report.
Jim Watson/AFP
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Jim Watson/AFP
President Trump plans to appoint conservative economist E.J. Antoni to guide one of many authorities’s prime statistical companies, 10 days after firing the earlier chief over a disappointing jobs report.
Antoni is an economist on the right-leaning Heritage Basis. He beforehand labored for the conservative Texas Public Coverage Basis.
“Our Economic system is booming, and E.J. will be certain that the Numbers launched are HONEST and ACCURATE,” Trump wrote in a social media publish.
If confirmed by the Senate, Antoni would take management of the Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS), which is answerable for producing the month-to-month jobs report in addition to monitoring inflation.
Trump fired the earlier commissioner of labor statistics, Erika McEntarfer, lower than two weeks in the past, after the bureau reported weaker-than-expected job good points for Might, June and July. The president mentioned the numbers had been rigged to make him look dangerous — a declare that was broadly dismissed by unbiased economists.
The BLS publish is usually held by apolitical technocrats who serve phrases that span presidential administrations. The selection of a partisan economist to supervise the bureau is prone to elevate contemporary questions concerning the reliability of market-moving authorities information.