By Trevor Hunnicutt and Costas Pitas
WASHINGTON, Jan 30 (Reuters) – U.S. President Donald Trump said on Friday he was nominating career economist Brett Matsumoto to be commissioner of the Bureau of Labor Statistics, months after he fired the previous chief on the heels of a weak jobs report.
“I am confident that Brett has the expertise to QUICKLY fix the long history of issues at the BLS on behalf of the American People,” Trump wrote on his Truth Social platform.
Trump fired then-Commissioner Erika McEntarfer, appointed by former President Joe Biden, in August, accusing her without evidence of manipulating the July figures, which showed unexpectedly slow employment growth and which greatly revised down nonfarm payrolls for the prior two months.
In addition to employment data, the bureau produces U.S. inflation reports, among others.
Matsumoto is a veteran economist at the BLS, who is on leave to work at the White House Council of Economic Advisers. He holds a doctorate in economics from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.
Trump initially picked conservative economist E.J. Antoni to head the agency but withdrew the nomination. Matsumoto’s nomination requires confirmation by the Senate.
Former BLS commissioners have described Trump’s attacks on the agency as unwarranted, saying they risked undermining trust in economic data and driving career economists out of their roles.
Trump is under increasing pressure to deliver strong economic results ahead of the November elections that will determine control of Congress. Voters have soured on his handling of cost-of-living issues, with just 35% of them giving the Republican president passing marks on the economy.
(Reporting by Costas Pitas and Trevor Hunnicutt; Editing by Chris Reese and William Mallard)
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