AP Wire
  • Updated

The White House is withdrawing the nomination of E.J. Antoni to lead the Bureau of Labor Statistics, according to a White House official and an AP source who spoke on the condition of anonymity to discuss the White House action, which has yet to be publicly announced. Antoni’s nomination, announced by the White House in August, was an attempt by Trump to gain greater control over the federal agency responsible for producing key economic data. The White House has maintained that it wants accurate figures after a series of downward revisions to the jobs report. Trump fired Erika McEntarfer as BLS commissioner on Aug. 1 after the July jobs report showed a rapid slowdown in hiring, with job gains in May and June revised much lower than initially estimated.