President Donald Trump's choice to lead the Bureau of Labor Statistics, economist E.J. Antoni, argued in August 2025 that the agency should temporarily stop publishing its closely watched monthly jobs report while problems he saw in the data were addressed.
Antoni made the proposal in an interview with Fox News Digital conducted on August 4 and published by Fox Business on August 12. His comments drew attention because the BLS Employment Situation report is one of the principal measures used by policymakers, businesses, investors and researchers to assess the U.S. labor market.
Antoni argued that the monthly figures had become unreliable enough that the agency should rely temporarily on more comprehensive quarterly employment information. The White House, however, said the administration expected the monthly report to continue.
Why the BLS jobs data became a political issue
The dispute followed the August 1, 2025 Employment Situation report. BLS initially reported that nonfarm payroll employment increased by 73,000 in July and that the unemployment rate was 4.2%.
The same release included unusually large downward revisions for the two preceding months. BLS revised May's payroll gain from 144,000 to 19,000 and June's gain from 147,000 to 14,000, reducing the combined estimate for those two months by 258,000 jobs.
BLS explained that monthly revisions occur as additional responses arrive from businesses and government agencies and as seasonal-adjustment calculations are updated.
Later on August 1, Trump dismissed BLS Commissioner Erika McEntarfer. The president accused her of manipulating employment figures for political purposes. He did not provide evidence supporting that accusation, and economists and former government statistics officials disputed the suggestion that the commissioner personally controlled the survey results.
What Antoni proposed
Antoni, then an economist at the conservative Heritage Foundation and a frequent critic of BLS methodology, said the problems with the employment data required urgent attention.
He proposed suspending the monthly jobs reports until the issues he identified were resolved while continuing to publish what he described as more accurate, though less timely, quarterly information.
The distinction matters because the monthly payroll estimates and quarterly employment counts are produced differently. The BLS explains that its Current Employment Statistics program uses a large monthly sample of businesses and government agencies to estimate employment, hours and earnings. Because it is a survey, the preliminary figures can change when more responses become available.
BLS normally revises an initial monthly payroll estimate in each of the next two months. It also conducts an annual benchmark process that realigns the survey estimates with much more comprehensive employment counts based primarily on state unemployment-insurance tax records.
Those benchmark data cover far more employers but arrive with a substantial delay. That creates a trade-off: the monthly report provides policymakers and markets with timely information, while later administrative records can give a more complete picture of employment.
White House said monthly reports would continue
Despite Antoni's proposal, White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt said on August 12 that it was the administration's intention and expectation for BLS to continue issuing monthly employment reports.
She also said the administration wanted to examine the methodologies used by BLS to ensure that the government was providing accurate and transparent economic information.
The monthly report contains much more than a single estimate of jobs created. It combines two major surveys: a household survey used to calculate measures including the unemployment rate and an establishment survey that estimates payroll employment, hours and earnings across industries.
Debate over revisions and statistical independence
The large May and June revisions intensified an existing debate about the challenges facing government economic surveys, including declining response rates and the difficulty of estimating employment at newly created and closed businesses in real time.
Revisions themselves are a standard feature of the payroll survey rather than evidence that the figures have been deliberately altered. BLS says revisions incorporate information unavailable when the preliminary estimate was produced, while annual benchmarking helps correct sampling and modeling errors by comparing estimates with more complete administrative records.
Antoni's proposed approach nevertheless attracted criticism from economists who argued that eliminating the monthly release would deprive businesses, policymakers and financial markets of timely information about changes in the labor market.
His nomination also drew partisan criticism in Congress. Senator Patty Murray, a Washington Democrat and senior member of the Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Committee, opposed Antoni's selection and argued that his appointment could damage confidence in official economic statistics.
Republican Senator Bill Cassidy, who chaired the committee responsible for considering the nomination, had previously criticized the size of BLS employment revisions. He said the bureau needed leadership committed to producing accurate and impartial economic data.
What happened to Antoni's nomination
At the time Antoni made his comments in August, Trump had announced his intention to select him as the next BLS commissioner. The White House formally sent Antoni's nomination to the Senate on September 3, 2025.
Antoni ultimately did not take control of the agency. On September 30, the White House withdrew his nomination before the Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Committee had held a confirmation hearing. The Senate committee's nomination record lists the September 30 action as receipt of the president's withdrawal of the nomination.
The following day, Leavitt said it had become clear Antoni did not have enough votes for confirmation and that the administration would select another nominee.
The later withdrawal did not change the underlying debate raised by the episode: how BLS can improve the accuracy and reliability of fast-moving economic estimates while preserving the timely publication and political independence of statistics relied upon throughout the U.S. economy.
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