White House Withdraws EJ Antoni’s Nomination to Lead Bureau of Labor Statistics

The White House has withdrawn economist EJ Antoni’s nomination to lead the Bureau of Labor Statistics, the White House confirmed on Sept. 30.

A White House official noted that President Donald Trump will announce a new nominee to lead the bureau “very soon.”

“Dr. EJ Antoni is a brilliant economist and an American patriot that will continue to do good work on behalf of our great country,” the White House official said. “President Trump is committed to fixing the longstanding failures at the BLS that have undermined the public’s trust in critical economic data.”

Dr. Kevin Roberts, president of The Heritage Foundation and Heritage Action, said in a statement to The Epoch Times that Antoni would have been well-suited to lead the bureau, calling him “one of the sharpest economic minds in the country.”

“E.J.’s immense capabilities and insightful economic analysis have not changed—and we are very proud to have him on our team,” he said in a statement to The Epoch Times.

“It is undeniable that BLS needs reform and E.J. was the right man for the job. E.J. will keep calling for that reform and serving the interests of the American people from his invaluable role as chief economist at Heritage.”

In August, President Donald Trump nominated Antoni, chief economist at The Heritage Foundation, to become the next commissioner of the federal agency.

His nomination came shortly after the president terminated Erika McEntarfer following the July jobs report that showed sizable revisions to employment gains in May and June.

Trump and senior administration officials have stated that the bureau requires a fresh set of eyes to oversee data collection and reporting following years of significant adjustments to the payroll figures.

“To make sure that the data are as transparent and as reliable as possible, we’re going to get highly qualified people in there that have a fresh start and a fresh set of eyes on the problem,” National Economic Council Director Kevin Hassett said in an interview with CNBC’s “Squawk Box” on Aug. 4.

Last month, White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt said the massive downward revisions prove “the BLS is broken.”

“This is exactly why we need new leadership to restore trust and confidence in the BLS’s data on behalf of the financial markets, businesses, policymakers, and families that rely on this data to make major decisions,” Leavitt said in a Sept. 9 statement.

The former Bureau of Labor Statistics chief said terminating one of the federal government’s main statisticians is “a dangerous step.”

Speaking publicly for the first time since her termination, McEntarfer talked about the “serious economic consequences” that could arise from potentially eroding agency independence.

“Firing your chief statistician is a dangerous step,” she said in a speech at the Levy Economics Institute at Bard College. “That’s an attack on the independence of an institution arguably as important as the Federal Reserve for economic stability,” she said on Sept. 17. “It has serious economic consequences, but that they would do this with no warning—it made no sense.”

In recent months, the bureau has come under scrutiny over its numbers.

In addition to sizable downward revisions to the monthly jobs reports, the bureau also reported in its latest annual preliminary benchmark revisions that payroll growth was overestimated by 911,000 for the 12-month period ending in March 2025.

Economic observers identified several challenges the bureau faces, particularly the declining response rate, which has fallen below 70 percent after hovering close to 90 percent in 2013.

Despite widespread concerns about data reliability, some market watchers disagree with the president’s accusing the McEntarfer-led bureau of fudging the numbers.

“I suspect that recent ructions in immigration flows to the US labor force are causing headaches for BLS tabulations, just as conditions around Covid did. A new agency head will not quickly unravel long-standing counting practices and will not solve for occasional unhappy reports,” Rick Pederson, vice chairman and chief strategy officer at Bow River Capital, said in a note emailed to The Epoch Times.

The Bureau of Labor Statistics, meanwhile, will release the September nonfarm payrolls report on Oct. 3. Early forecasts suggest the U.S. economy added 50,000 new jobs and the unemployment rate held steady at 4.3 percent.