WASHINGTON — US President Donald Trump on Monday said he was nominating economist E.J. Antoni as the new Bureau of Labor Statistics commissioner, 10 days after firing the agency’s previous leader following a weak scorecard of the job market, accusing her without evidence of manipulating the figures.
Antoni is currently the chief economist at the influential conservative think tank Heritage Foundation. He has been critical of the BLS, the Labor Department’s statistical agency, whose monthly figures about the state of the job market and inflation are consumed by a global audience of economists, investors, business leaders, public policymakers and consumers.
Their release routinely has a visible and real-time effect on stock, bond and currency markets around the world.
“Our Economy is booming, and E.J. will ensure that the Numbers released are HONEST and ACCURATE,” Trump said on Truth Social.
Antoni last year wrote an opinion piece in the New York Post, stating “the Biden-Harris Labor Department seems to exist in the land of make-believe.” That was after the BLS published data estimating a sharp downward revision to the level of employment from April 2023-through March 2024.
The nomination of Antoni, who contributed to “Project 2025,” the controversial conservative plan to overhaul the government, was met with reservations from economists.
“The nominee will result in a surge in demand for private label data,” said Joe Brusuelas, chief economist at RSM US.
Groundwork Collaborative’s head of policy and advocacy Alex Jacquez called Antoni a “sycophant,” adding his selection was “a clear assault on independent analysis that will have far-reaching implications for the reliability of US economic data.”
Antoni, who must be confirmed by the Senate, would take over an agency that has come under heightened scrutiny for the eroding quality of the data it produces.
Trump added to growing concerns about the reliability of BLS and other federal government economic data when he fired Erika McEntarfer as BLS commissioner on August 1. Her dismissal came hours after the agency reported much weaker-than-expected job growth for July and issued an historically large revision to its employment figures for May and June.
