White House Withdraws Nomination for Bureau of Labor Statistics Chief After Job Report Concerns

The White House has withdrawn the nomination of E.J. Antoni, a conservative economist from the Heritage Foundation, to lead the Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS). Antoni was nominated by President Donald Trump after firing the previous BLS commissioner, Erika McEntarfer, who he accused without evidence of manipulating job growth data to favor Democrats. The July jobs report, which showed weak job growth and significant downward revisions of previous months, triggered the controversy and Trump's firing of McEntarfer. Antoni's nomination faced criticism over concerns about politicization and data integrity, as well as his skepticism of BLS data and ties to conservative figures like Steve Bannon. The Senate did not schedule a confirmation hearing amid government shutdown threats and ongoing scrutiny of federal economic data reliability. The White House stated it will soon nominate a new candidate to lead the BLS.