Bureau of Labor Statistics postpones key data report

[Wiz Imp]

25. Please don't disparage the career employees of the Bureau of Labor Statistics

They are overwhelmingly honest and would never agree to manipulate numbers. I know these folks and to a person, they have said they would resign before manipulating the data. The people who might manipulate numbers are the Secretary of Labor and other high level department officials appointed by Trump.

Understand, however, that it will be difficult for them to do that, as I suspect numerous career statisticians would become whistleblowers and let the public know that the numbers are fake. Because of that, it remains far more likely that the administration will simply not publish data they find problematic rather than try to fake it. It appears that may be what is happening here. Note the pending nominee for Commissioner has already floated the idea of stopping monthly jobs reports.

For now, the Acting Commissioner is Bill Wiatrowski, a career BLS employee who has worked there for over 30 years and served as Acting Commissioner under both Republican and Democratic administrations. He is a good man, and he will never go along with faking data - so as long as he remains Acting Commissioner, the data should remain trustworthy.