President Donald Trump on Monday evening nominated a Heritage Foundation economist who has publicly criticized federal data collection at the Bureau of Labor Statistics to lead the agency.
On Tuesday, Fox Business published an interview with the nominee, E.J. Antoni, during which Antoni suggested halting the release of the monthly jobs report and echoed Trump’s unfounded claims that the reports included misleading information.
“How on earth are businesses supposed to plan — or how is the Fed supposed to conduct monetary policy — when they don’t know how many jobs are being added or lost in our economy? It’s a serious problem that needs to be fixed immediately,” Antoni told Fox News Digital in an interview conducted on August 4. “Until it is corrected, the BLS should suspend issuing the monthly job reports but keep publishing the more accurate, though less timely, quarterly data.”
The comments, which came after Trump fired the previous BLS commissioner over lackluster job numbers, drew ire on social media and ignited anxiety in economists who underscored the importance of the monthly jobs report, and of the bureau’s freedom from political pressure, in interviews with TPM.
“The fact that it moves markets tells you that it’s valuable information, it’s credible information, it’s the best available information at the time that it’s released, and suppressing that information is like gouging out our eyes,” said Aaron Sojourner, a senior researcher at the non-partisan W.E. Upjohn Institute for Employment Research. “It hurts our ability to see what’s happening around us; it forces us into making worse decisions.”
Michael Horrigan, president of the Upjohn Institute, said in a separate interview that the Trump administration’s general “lack of faith” in federal statistics is concerning, but hopes the next BLS commissioner would understand the gravity of the agency’s nonpartisan reputation.
“If someone were to come in with a political agenda,” said Horrigan, “they should have a different job.”
In response to a TPM inquiry about whether Trump has considered or would consider issuing an executive order to halt the publishing of legally mandated federal monthly jobs data, White House spokesperson Taylor Rogers responded saying the president nominated Antoni to “restore America’s trust” in BLS jobs data.
“Antoni’s education and vast experience as an economist has prepared him to produce accurate public data for businesses, households, and policymakers to inform their decision-making,” Rogers said in an email. “Unlike the previous Commissioner, Antoni will produce overdue solutions to long-term issues at the Bureau and provide Americans with the accurate data they deserve.”
Antoni must now be confirmed by the Senate.
William Beach, the former Trump-appointed BLS commissioner, expressed skepticism that Antoni or any BLS commissioner would actually cease the collection and publication of monthly jobs data, in an interview with TPM. The report is mandated by federal law, and suspending its publication would require an executive order.
“And he may be able to get that,” Beach said, “but there would be a lot of blowback from Wall Street…who use these monthly reports for guidance on their business decisions.”
Notably, Antoni has been hypercritical of federal economic data in general, and the BLS jobs report specifically. In May, he suggested routine revisions to BLS jobs data meant the Biden administration had created “fake” jobs, and conflated two different kinds of BLS datasets in an op-ed for conservative publication Townhall.
Trump fired former BLS Commissioner Erika McEntarfer on Aug. 1 mere hours after the July jobs report showed a slowdown in the labor market and revised May and June employment downward by 258,000 jobs. Her dismissal was decried by economists, some Republican senators and Beach, the former Trump-appointed BLS Commissioner.
“It’s a much bigger job than it was on July 31 before Erika was fired,” Beach told TPM on Tuesday. “The incoming commissioner, whoever that person is, has to restore trust and really work with his staff.”
Beach, who also worked at the Heritage Foundation and was the founding director of its Center for Data Analysis, said he’d spoken with Antoni, as he had with McEntarfer before she joined the BLS.
Antoni has worked at a succession of advocacy groups and conservative think tanks since 2020, according to his public LinkedIn. Antoni served as a fellow at Committee to Unleash Prosperity, a conservative economic thinktank. He then joined The Heritage Foundation, the conservative organization that authored the Project 2025 presidential policy directive that has served as the roadmap for much of the second Trump administration. Antoni contributed to Project 2025, according to a report from the Washington Post, and was promoted to chief economist at The Heritage Foundation in May.
His nomination caused a firestorm among economists and researchers on social media. Jessica Riedl, an economist at the Manhattan Institute, a conservative policy think tank, criticized Trump’s nomination of Antoni in a post on X.
“The sad thing is that there are countless competent, respected conservative economists (especially at universities) who could do a terrific job running BLS,” Riedl wrote. “But no credible economist would take a job in which you’d get fired for publishing accurate data.”
Jason Furman, former chair of the Council of Economic Advisers under Obama, called Antoni completely unqualified in a social media post. “He is an extreme partisan and does not have any relevant expertise,” wrote Furman.
Brian Albrecht, chief economist at the International Center for Law and Economics, posted a thread to X purportedly showing several times Antoni was hyper-partisan or displayed insufficient economic knowledge.
Economist Sojourner said Antoni’s partisan leanings are exactly why Trump picked him. “I think he was chosen because what he has built a record on over the last few years is attacking the BLS; for making the same kind of charges against the BLS as the president made on [Aug. 1].
“A statistical agency that’s subject to political control,” Sojourner added, “has no credible economic value. It’s kind of pointless.”
Beach, however, expressed confidence in Antoni’s potential leadership.
“I think his reputation — I had a very similar reputation — that follows you into the Bureau, and you need to immediately align yourself with the staff in leadership positions,” Beach said. “His reputation doesn’t matter,” he continued later. “It’s irrelevant because what you do inside the BLS is way different than what you do at a think tank.”
All eyes will now be on senators Cynthia Lummis (R-WY), Thom Tillis (R-NC), Rand Paul (R-KY) and Lisa Murkowski (R-AK), who each expressed concerns after the president dismissed McEntarfer. Antoni can only lose support from three Republican senators to be successfully confirmed.
