Trump hiring freeze threatens key economic data as the Fed zeroes in on inflation
The Ministry of Labor has reduced inflation data that it brings due to the freezing of the Trump administration government, which raises concerns among economists about the quality of inflation numbers exactly as well as closely monitored for the impact of definitions.
On Wednesday, the Ministry of Labor Statistics Office, which results from the monthly consumer price index, which is the most monitored inflation, said on Wednesday that “it reduces the sample in the regions across the country,” and added that he stopped collecting price data in April in Lincoln, Nebraska and Provo, Utah. She also said she had stopped collecting data this month in Boufalo, New York.
In an email sent by BLS to the economists, which was seen by Associated Press, the agency said it was “temporarily reduced the number of ports and quotes that she tried to collect due to the lack of employment” in April. Reduced data will be kept until the recruitment freezing is raised.
president Donald Trump freezed a federal employment on his first day in his post and expanded freezing in April until late July, indicating that future inflation reports will also include collecting less data.
The discounts of fears between economists have increased that government spending discounts can destroy the federal government’s ability to collect major economic data on employment, prices and the wider economy. BLS also said last month that he will not collect wholesale prices in about 350 category for the product price index, a measure of price changes before they arrive at the consumer.
Discounts also occur at a time of increased uncertainty about the economy and the effect of Trump’s comprehensive tariff on employment, growth and inflation. For example, federal reserve officials have been repeatedly martyred with cloudy expectations as a major reason that they did not return to the short term interest, after reducing it three times late last year.
Omar Sharif, the chief economist in “inflation electronics”, said in an email message: “The product price index cuts hundreds of indexes of production, and the consumer price index is now being built with less data,” said Omar Sharif, the chief economist in “inflation electronics”, in an email. “This alone worries that we are heading to the teeth of the tariff on prices.”
BLS said that the discounts “have little effect” on total inflation data, but “may increase” fluctuating prices for specific elements.
Sharif and other economists said that BLS had not issued sufficient information to judge the size of the effects caused by the reductions on inflation numbers. But it can make it a little less accurate.
“When you have a reduced sample size, it offers more error,” Sharif said. “It creates the possibility that indexes are more volatile and perhaps less accurate.”
Earlier this year, the Trump administration has resolved many consulting committees that worked with BLS and other statistical agencies to formulate data collection.
Alan Dimyster, an UBS economist, an investment bank, said the cuts may have little impact on inflation numbers in April. But “if these types continue from the cuts, they will recycle the reliability and effectiveness of these statistical agencies.”
BLS collects monthly inflation reports by sending employees to retail stores throughout the country to collect thousands of prices. About 60 % of the prices used in inflation data are collected in person, while about 35 % online and 5 % are collected over the phone.
This story was originally shown on Fortune.com
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2025-06-04 21:06:00
