Trump’s BLS Pick to Contend With Leadership Vacuum, Staff Losses

President Donald Trump’s pick to lead the Bureau of Labor Statistics will go up against critical leadership gaps and staffing shortages that threaten the agency’s role in informing economic policy.

Trump’s choice of a career labor economist and civil servant in Brett Matsumoto has somewhat cooled fears the president wants to exert political influence over the BLS, which is supposed to be a nonpolitical agency, economists and former agency officials say.

But running an agency during the Trump era that generates data and reporting used across the government to guide policymaking is itself a challenge that will likely be exacerbated by elevated fears of presidential interference and the recent loss of nearly a quarter of BLS staff.

Matsumoto is Trump’s second nominee for the position. The White House withdrew the first pick, Heritage Foundation economist E.J. Antoni, from consideration when several key Republican senators refused to meet with him and indicated that his political positions made him unsuitable for the post. Antoni advocated for releasing jobs data on a quarterly basis instead of monthly.

“I felt some relief,” said Erica Groshen, a former BLS Commissioner under the Obama and first Trump administrations, of Matsumoto’s selection. “From my point of view, the prior nominee didn’t really check a lot of boxes so I was happy to see that we’re getting someone who has a strong professional record and knows BLS from the inside.”

Matsumoto isn’t yet officially listed among nominees awaiting confirmation, a sign the White House hasn’t sent the required paperwork to the Senate.

He has worked as a research economist at the BLS since May 2015, according to his LinkedIn profile, and also sits on the White House Council of Economic Advisers.

Economists say Matsumoto’s nomination was received better than Antoni’s among BLS watchers, but Trump has already damaged the bureau’s credibility and his workforce initiatives have stripped the agency of over a dozen key leaders.

Leadership Gaps

The BLS has had a number of high-profile exits in the past two years. Prominent leaders in the agency took early retirement or buyout opportunities since Trump took office in January 2025.

According to a December reportby the American Statistical Society, the BLS lost 20% of its staff from fiscal year 2024.

Of 35 leadership roles listed on the BLS’s website, 13 of them still sit vacant. The BLS, like much of the federal government, has been under a hiring freeze for more than a year, meaning it can’t fill those positions.

“There are PhD economists collecting data right now,” Groshen said, noting this work is typically done by field staff.

The BLS’s budget has also been nearly flat for over a decade, meaning that crucial modernization updates have been neglected, said Groshen.

The ASA report, which examined other statistical agencies including the US Census Bureau and Bureau of Economic Analysis, found that they needed “immediate” help from policymakers, citing low staffing levels and flagging public trust.

These factors could make Matsumoto’s job complicated if he’s confirmed.

“He will be inheriting a bureau that has been knee-capped by these cuts,” Heidi Shierholz, president of the Economic Policy Institute and former DOL economist, said. “He will face incredibly difficult decisions over how to most strategically allocate the reduced resources.”

While actual meddling with labor statistics would be called out by whistleblowers in the agency, erosion of the public’s trust through Trump’s rhetoric and the withholding of resources might be more damaging long-term, she added.

Political Meddling

Trump fired BLS Commissioner Erika McEntarfer, who was nominated by President Joe Biden and confirmed to the post by the Senate in 2024, in August last year several days after the agency revised an employment report that suggested a slowing economy.

Trump asserted, without evidence, that the poor jobs numbers were manipulated for political purposes, and stressed that the BLS’s numbers must be “fair and accurate.” Economists and statisticians have defended BLS’s data revisions, saying they didn’t indicate political tampering from the commissioner.

Labor Secretary Lori Chavez-DeRemer echoed the president in a statement later, saying “our jobs numbers must be fair, accurate, and never manipulated for political purposes.”

DOL’s Inspector General initiated a review of the BLS’s process for gathering producer and consumer price indexes in September.

McEntarfer’s termination ignited concerns across economists and statisticians of political interference in the economic data.

Shierholz said that Matsumoto, if he’s confirmed, will be taking charge of an agency at a fragile moment.

“At a time that is so uncertain and in flux right now, where we’re seeing a slowing of the economy, it is so unbelievably important that, whether it’s Brett or anyone else in that position, we allow them to do their work,” she said. “Policy makers need timely, accurate data in order to best steer the economy.”

Matsumoto’s role on Trump’s Council of Economic Advisors is essentially as an in-house economic consultant, said Aaron Sojourner, a labor economist and senior researcher at the W.E. Upjohn Institute for Employment Research.

Sojourner served on the CEA in Matsumoto’s position during the Obama and first Trump administrations and said the role is designed to be largely apolitical.

Sojourner said the BLS has so far retained its integrity, despite Trump’s overtures.

“The president has demonstrated very clearly his desire to influence inappropriately the statistics that come out of the agency when he fired the commissioner,” he said. “It’s a very legitimate concern but I don’t think it’s a reality right now.”

The newly finalized Schedule Career/Policy could place political pressure on workers in the BLS if they’re determined to fall under the “policy-influencing” category, according to Sojourner and the ASA report.