In a nomination announced Friday, President Donald Trump named government economist Brett Matsumoto as his pick to lead the Bureau of Labor Statistics, a federal agency that produces widely watched labor-market figures. Trump said Matsumoto would “Quickly fix” any problems with the agency, after Trump had earlier accused the BLS of putting out low monthly jobs numbers in a way that could make him look bad.
Trump’s comments come against a backdrop of controversy and scrutiny around recent BLS employment data. The AP reported there was no evidence that the Bureau of Labor Statistics sought to undermine Trump with its releases, but the agency made a string of revisions to prior reports during the summer, with the revisions showing the job market weakened after Trump returned to the White House and fired the BLS director in August.
Trump has also characterized the BLS leadership in harsh terms, including a Friday night social media post that said the agency had been led by “WEAK and STUPID people,” according to the AP. On Truth Social, Trump described Matsumoto as “a Brilliant, Reputable, and Trusted Economist who will restore GREATNESS to the Bureau of Labor Statistics,” according to the AP.
Matsumoto’s experience, according to the report, includes work as a supervisory research economist at the BLS and service as a senior economist for the White House Council of Economic Advisers. That background positioned him as a federal-economist candidate with direct ties both to the labor-statistics agency and the administration’s economic-policy staff.
The nomination also follows an earlier personnel track Trump pursued for the BLS post. Trump initially picked E.J. Antoni, the chief economist at the Heritage Foundation, to lead the agency, but the White House withdrew the nomination in September after Antoni faced criticism about his qualifications. The AP also reported that NBC News said Antoni was in the crowd outside the U.S. Capitol during the Jan. 6, 2021, insurrection.
Trump had already made a leadership change at the BLS after the release of the July jobs report, the AP said. That report showed that just 73,000 jobs were added last month and that 258,000 fewer jobs were created in May and June than previously estimated, and the July figure has since been revised downward to 72,000, according to the report. Beyond employment data, the BLS also produces other economic publications, including the consumer price index, which measures inflation.