US President Donald Trump has nominated EJ Antoni, an economist at the conservative think tank Heritage Foundation, to head the Bureau of Labor Statistics, following the dismissal of Commissioner Erika McEntarfer earlier this month, according to BBC.
Trump accused McEntarfer of manipulating jobs data to harm his administration, a claim widely rejected by economists. Her removal came after weaker-than-expected July figures and unusually large downward revisions for previous months.
Antoni, a vocal critic of the BLS’s methodology, will require Senate confirmation. The bureau is currently led by Acting Commissioner William Watrowski. The move has sparked concerns over politicising economic data, BBC reported.
