MNI BRIEF: Trump To Nominate E.J. Antoni As BLS Commissioner

U.S. President Donald Trump said Monday that he will nominate the economist E. J. Antoni as commissioner of the Bureau of Labor Statistics, currently the chief economist at the conservative Heritage Foundation.

Antoni would replace Erika McEntarfer, who Trump fired as BLS commissioner on August 1 after an unexpectedly weak jobs report in a move that has been widely derided by economists and investors worried about long-term data reliability.  (See: MNI INTERVIEW: Mounting BLS Pressure Harmful For Data- Groshen) 

Antoni has long criticized the agency’s approach to collecting jobs data. He has worked at several right-wing think tanks and institutes including Unleash Prosperity, the Texas Public Policy Foundation, and FreedomWorks, a conservative and libertarian advocacy group. He holds master’s and doctoral degrees in economics from Northern Illinois University.