Trump taps conservative economist E.J. Antoni to head BLS : NPR

President Trump plans to appoint the conservative economist EJ Antoni to lead the Labor Statistics Office. Trump dismissed the previous head of the office after a disappointing report of jobs.

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President Trump plans to appoint the conservative economist EJ Antoni to run one of the main government’s statistical agencies, 10 days after dismissed the previous chief for a disappointing job report.

Antoni is an economist at the Right-Leaning Heritage Foundation. He previously worked for the Texas Public Policy Foundation conservative.

“Our economy is booming and EJ will guarantee that the figures released are honest and accurate,” wrote Trump in an article on social networks.

If he is confirmed by the Senate, Antoni would take control of the Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS), which is responsible for the production of the monthly job report as well as the monitoring of inflation.

Trump dismissed the former Labor Statistics Commissioner, Erika Mcentarfer, less than two weeks ago, after the office reported lower employment than scheduled for May, June and July. The president said that the figures had been faked to make it seem bad – an assertion that was largely rejected by independent economists.

The post BLS is generally held by apolitical technocrats who serve conditions that cover presidential administrations. The choice of a partisan economist to supervise the office is likely to raise new questions about the reliability of government data that evolve the market.