“What they're saying: "I think we are all concerned now about the future of our country's economic data," Erika McEntarfer, the former BLS commissioner abruptly fired by Trump, said this week at Bard College."

"I can vouch for the accuracy and independence of the work of the agency up until the moment I was fired ... but in terms of the future: it is an uncertain moment," McEntarfer said. BLS has already cut back on data collection for specific CPI categories and certain regions, a result of staffing shortages and budget cuts.

"Plummeting survey response rates has wreaked havoc on jobs data at statistics agencies around the world, including the U.S. Bloomberg reported this week that the agency was looking to ramp up staff to collect price data in major metro areas. The Labor Department's internal watchdog launched a probe into BLS economic data collection earlier this month, citing challenges the agency "encounters collecting and reporting closely watched economic data."