Labor Department inspector general audit targets BLS data challenges

On Wednesday, the Ministry of Labor Control Authority announced an audit of the challenges it faces Work Statistics Office (BLS) in collecting data for inflation and labor market reports.

The Inspector General of the Ministry of Labor wrote to the BLS Commissioner, William Witrofsky, to inform the agency that the IG office is “starting a review of the challenges faced by the Labor Statistics Office, collecting the economic data you are closely seen.”

In the letter, IG indicated that BLS announced the activities of collecting data reduction in the Consumer Prices Index (CPI) and the product price index (PPI). He added that BLS “recently released a major declining review of its appreciation for the new jobs in the monthly employment report.”

president Donald Trump The BLS Commissioner who launched Erika Mcentarfer after the Jobs report in July was the I am too expected and the revised employment in May and June down by 258,000 jobs. Trump claimed that the report was “forged” and accused Mcentarfer of political bias.

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BLS routinely Job data review During the previous two months, with each monthly report of the jobs she publishes, more of her samples come. The response rates of the initial survey have decreased over the years, which may create volatility when making reviews based on more complete data.

BLS announced earlier this year that it had re -collected its data for inflation reports due to resource deficiency.

It also faces the possibility of making more budgets and discounts in employment – Trump administration The 2026 fiscal budget application will reduce the BLS budget for job reports and inflation data by about 8 % for each of them, with the agency’s workforce reduction by a similar amount.

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In July, BLS announced that in order to “harmonize the burden of investigative work with resource levels, BLS suspended the collection of data for parts of Consumer price index (CPI) A sample in selected areas throughout the country, “which started this spring.

BLS said it had fully suspended the CPI data collection in Boufalo, New York Lincoln, Nebraska and Broveau, Utah, with a suspension of about 15 % of the sample in 72 other regions across the country. The agency said that it had a statistical analysis of the effect of the suspension by conducting a simulation dating back to 2018, which found that it changed the estimates of the consumer price index at less than 1/100 percentage points.

He added that “he will continue to evaluate surveying operations and set the available resources efficiently to collect data in a way that reduces the error of measuring the consumer price index in general.”

Trump orders the completion of the responsible work statistics after the report and the descending reviews

Labor Minister Lori Chavez-Derimer criticized the BLS annual review to work from April 2024 to March 2025. (Chip Somodevilla / Getty Images)

The Trump administration also criticized BLS for its annual standard fee for workforce data. The initial initial review of BLS decreased from April 2024 to March 2025 The bottom is 911,000 jobs The agency will include the final estimate, starting with the job report in January 2026, which was issued next February.

BLS goes through the annual measurement process to integrate the quarterly unemployment unemployment data in addition to more accurate records about business and deaths in their estimates-a process that helps reduce reports errors and lack of response that accumulates by collecting monthly data.

After issuing the preliminary record, the Minister of Labor Lori Chavez-Dimer “The tremendous audit gives the American people more doubt about the safety of BLS,” he said.

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“Leaders in the office failed to improve their practices during the Biden administration, while taking advantage of the old methods that made a reliable system once completely ineffective and question the motivation behind their failure. The Trump administration puts a stop for years of neglect.”

Chavez-Tremid previously shared the BLS statistics published on the account of the official Ministry of Labor X to promote the progress of the Economic agenda of the Trump administration at its government account X, including a job of job report in July before Trump launched the Bls president.