Tag: BLS Commissioner

Megan McArdle (Washington Post), Trump should heed, not hide, the jobs numbers: Firing the Bureau of Labor Statistics commissioner won’t improve the U.S. economy

Business owners use labor statistics in making decisions about planning, hiring, and setting wages. From now on, these kinds of decisions will be based on unreliable data—or, certainly, data that are perceived as unreliable.

Politicians, and everyone concerned with politics, relies on labor statistics to inform them about whether the economy is healthy, unhealthy, or mediocre and as an essential source of information for setting monetary and fiscal policy. From now on, they will lack an important source of reliable information on which to base their decisions.

Career counselors, students, job seekers, and workers use BLS data as a significant source of information about salaries and job prospects. From now on, their ability to plan will be materially diminished.