The Bureau of Labor Statistics announced Friday that the next jobs report will be delayed without providing a reason beyond stating it will be "rescheduled to a later date."
According to a report from Axios, the announcement went out late on Friday, and inquiries to the BLS, as well as the Department of Labor, went unanswered.
Jobs numbers from the BLS have been a center of controversy during the Donald Trump administration after the president flew into a rage and fired commissioner Erika McEntarfer in July after accusing her department of making up poor job numbers which he believes cast him in a bad light.
At that time, Trump snarled on Truth Social, “No one can be that wrong? We need accurate Jobs Numbers. I have directed my Team to fire this Biden Political Appointee, IMMEDIATELY. She will be replaced with someone much more competent and qualified.”
With McEntarfer out of the way, the BLS report released at the beginning of September, on August numbers, was also bad news for the Trump administration, leading MSNBC’s Jonathan Lemire to comment at the time: “There's no way to sugarcoat this. This jobs report is brutal.”
Regarding the new announcement that the next report has been kicked down the road, Courtney Brown of Axios reported, “There is heightened concern about the future of U.S. statistics, including the politicization and accuracy of crucial data that affects the stock market and interest rates.”
According to former BLS commissioner William Beach, "I would worry, however, if there's a further delay. There are so many vacant positions at BLS that I'm surprised their release record so far has been very good.”
You can read more from Axios here.