Trump taps career staffer to lead statistics agency whose chief he fired

President Donald Trump plans to tap economist Brett Matsumoto to head the Bureau of Labor Statistics, according to two people familiar with the decision.

Matsumoto is a senior economist on Trump’s Council of Economic Advisers and is currently on leave from BLS, where he has worked in nonpolitical roles since 2015. Matsumoto did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

The people familiar with the decision spoke on the condition of anonymity because the president has yet to make an announcement. The Senate would have to confirm the nomination.

BLS has been without a permanent leader since August when Trump fired its previous commissioner, Erika McEntarfer, a Biden appointee, after a jobs report revealed a weaker-than-expected labor market. Trump claimed at the time, and without evidence, that jobs data produced under McEntarfer was “rigged.”

If confirmed, Matsumoto, a career staffer, would lead the independent agency that produces nonpartisan data on jobs, prices, wages and other topics that is used widely, including by the Federal Reserve to set interest rates – as well as by the president, Congress and businesses trying to assess the state of the economy.

The White House did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

In September, the Trump administration confirmed that it had withdrawn its initial nominee for the job, E.J. Antoni, then-chief economist at the conservative Heritage Foundation. Antoni’s nomination drew widespread criticism from Democrats and both liberal and conservative economists because of his partisan views and lack of experience.

Routine revisions to jobs data that pushed Trump to fire McEntarfer had shown that the United States had created 818,000 fewer jobs than previously reported.

BLS is an agency within the Labor Department with a Senate-confirmed commissioner.

Trump’s selection of Matsumoto is likely to alleviate concerns among economists and Wall Street investors that the head of this agency would be driven by politics and that the agency’s data could be subject to interference.

William Beach, a former BLS commissioner during the first Trump administration, said he was “relieved” by Trump’s selection of Matsumoto, whom he described as “truly technical.” Beach said he had worked with Matsumoto on projects during Trump’s first term.

“If President Trump does plan to nominate him, then I have to say I think that’s a good move,” Beach said.

Matsumoto received his Ph.D. in economics from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill in 2015 and a BS from the University of Delaware. His research focus was on economic measurement, according to the White House website.