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Wiz Imp

(7,513 posts)

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

Sat Sep 20, 2025, 05:50 PM

Sep 20

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.

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mahatmakanejeeves

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Bureau of Labor Statistics postpones key data report [View all] riversedge Sep 20 OP

Nit to pick (with Axios): mahatmakanejeeves Sep 20 #1

Yes! I spent a lot of time in meetings and conferences in the Postal Square Building Wiz Imp Sep 20 #23

I'm sure the new BLS commissioner would like to permanently delay the release Coldwater Sep 20 #2

To be clear, the new BLS Commissioner hasn't been confirmed yet by the Senate. Wiz Imp Sep 20 #24

the data is also used to determine the weighting of specific goods and services in the Consumer Price Index progree Sep 20 #3

Maybe a bit overstated (or understated?) but it's truer than anything tRUMP ever spouts wolfie001 Sep 20 #4

Yeah, I don't think those numbers work out muriel_volestrangler Sep 20 #5

I know the super-duper wealthy .1 of 1% skew the 401K and retirement accts..... wolfie001 Sep 20 #8

I'm not sure what you want to analyse - wealth, or income? muriel_volestrangler Sep 20 #10

Poverty wolfie001 Sep 20 #12

No, no need to block you - you're not annoying me. I just wondered what the "quibble" you saw was. muriel_volestrangler Sep 20 #13

OK, sorry wolfie001 Sep 20 #14

Sure. There is obviously a large imbalance in income, and an even greater one in wealth muriel_volestrangler Sep 20 #15

Just to step in 'it' here. An awful lot of wealth is via inheritance. And capital gains erronis Sep 20 #26

Yep! wolfie001 Sunday #27

The top 1,000 wealthiest Americans are having a very good year FakeNoose Sep 20 #16

The next jobs report: riversedge Sep 20 #6

The cadence in which these NK "newscasters" speak is like a military march wolfie001 Sep 20 #9

And so it begins................ Bengus81 Sep 20 #7

ITT Takes Time To Cook The Books Convincingly DallasNE Sep 20 #11

There is no pretense of a commitment to honest data collection and reporting. hay rick Sep 20 #17

We'll publish when the numbers look better RainCaster Sep 20 #18

We will update users when more information is available patphil Sep 20 #19

Must message data report to say what they want republianmushroom Sep 20 #20

I loved when accountant... used the phrase:.."massage the figures". BurnDoubt Sep 20 #21

Honest question, won't the cooked #'s be used to reduce COLA? Buddyzbuddy Sep 20 #22

Please don't disparage the career employees of the Bureau of Labor Statistics Wiz Imp Sep 20 #25