On the day the July jobs report was released, showing a slowing labor market, President Trump fired the commissioner of the Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS), Erika McEntarfer. This action undermines the integrity of the federal statistical agency data ecosystem.

From removing data from hundreds of government websites to scrubbing or changing data fields deemed to fall under the president’s executive orders targeting diversity, equity, and inclusion programs, the objectivity and trustworthiness of the federal government’s data has been repeatedly undermined. If the country cannot trust the agencies that collect, analyze, and produce data that are used for countless purposes, how are other governments, businesses, nonprofits, communities, and individuals going to assess their own work, investments, and more?

Data from the BLS, US Census Bureau, Bureau of Economic Analysis, and other federal statistical agencies are essential to the functioning of the US economy. They inform the development and implementation of programs and policies and provide insights that help businesses and governments plan and invest. BLS employment and job data, for example, are used by businesses to forecast job demand, which shapes hiring and training strategies. Wage and salary data help employers benchmark compensation across regions as they compete for talent. And BLS price data are used by the Federal Reserve to help set interest rates, influencing borrowing costs for both businesses and homeowners. Without accurate and trustworthy data from these agencies, consumers, businesses, and governments risk making risky and uninformed decisions.

Defending data integrity at the Bureau of Labor Statistics

President Biden appointed McEntarfer to the role in July 2023 and, like many before her, she served across presidential terms. Like all BLS commissioners, McEntarfer oversaw the agency’s more than 2,000 people while managing crucial economic data and regular reports, including data on employment and unemployment, inflation, earnings and wages, and job openings and labor turnover. She is the only commissioner to be fired—in this case, explicitly for overseeing job numbers that did not support the president’s message.

I have some experience with the work BLS does to preserve accuracy and integrity of its data. Last fall, I was part of a team of experts (PDF) convened by the Department of Labor to conduct an inquiry into the BLS’s procedures and practices for fair and timely release of public data. The team was asked to investigate three data disclosure incidents in 2024 in which BLS data were potentially released to a subset of users or released too early or too late. Our team concluded that all three incidents were isolated events caused by human error and were not related to the quality or accuracy of BLS work, and that the agency’s technology and software modernization plans were hampered by several years of underfunding.

In my interactions with the commissioner, I found McEntarfer to be candid and honest about the agency’s challenges, their mistakes, and their goal to produce honest, objective, and timely statistics for the country. She made all witnesses available to us during our 60 days of investigation.

Policymakers have a role in protecting federal data

The executive branch, of course, is not the only branch of government that has power and responsibility over the nation’s data agencies. Over the past 20 years, inflation-adjusted spending on the BLS has declined by more than 13 percent. In an era when data are more important and data collection is more complicated than ever, these reductions already erode the trust, value, and reliability of BLS data.

Federal policymakers can take steps to strengthen and support the nation’s data collection agencies:

1. Act now to support the nation’s data infrastructure. The administration argues that firing the commissioner was warranted because of the revised job numbers, which it describes as the “biggest miscalculations in over 50 years.” Firing the commissioner because the numbers don’t align with the administration’s messaging jeopardizes the independence of the nation’s statistical infrastructure. Whether a policymaker represents an urban or rural area, the North or the South, or communities with higher or lower incomes, objectively understanding those patterns is key to good governance and public policymaking. Policymakers should support the country’s data agencies by protecting their independence and defending their work from political interference.
2. Increase BLS funding. Funding for the BLS is at its lowest point since 2001, driven by legislation enacted by both parties. Cuts of this size threaten the quality and reliability of data, leading to less-effective policy. Though budgets involve competing demands, the 2001 inflation-adjusted budget for the BLS was about $100 million more than its budget in 2024, which, if maintained at that level more than a 10-year period, would be less than 0.025 percent of the total $4.1 trillion added to the national debt under the recently enacted One Big Beautiful Bill Act.
3. Continue oversight. Statistical agencies—including the BLS, Census Bureau, Bureau of Economic Analysis, Statistics of Income Division, and many more—are not without their flaws. Releases are sometimes late. Revisions may be necessary. That is why public oversight—like the panel I sat on late last year—is so important. Objective, high-quality, and nonpolitical data are crucial to good policy, and sufficient oversight policies can be the key to ensuring data meet these standards.

The nation’s data collection agencies are critical to producing better evidence-based public policy. From estimating the financial cost and impact of those policies to understanding who will be affected, our nation needs these essential data to maintain a well-functioning economy. 

Policymakers have a responsibility to ensure that those who collect, analyze, and manage those organizations are free from political interference, conducting their work without fear of retribution or reprisal. They can take these steps to ensure the nation’s agencies are trustworthy, accurate, and timely. But, doing so requires immediate, decisive action.