Can ... we still trust the monthly jobs report?

我们还能信任这份月度就业报告吗?

The Indicator from Planet Money

商务

2025-03-07

8 分钟
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单集简介 ...

Between the Trump administration wanting to change how GDP is calculated and DOGE accessing sensitive government information, statistical agencies are under the microscope. Can we still trust official numbers like the monthly jobs report? A former Bureau of Labor Statistics commissioner shares her worries about the future integrity of government data. Related episodes:Behind the scenes of Jobs Friday For sponsor-free episodes of The Indicator from Planet Money, subscribe to Planet Money+ via Apple Podcasts or at plus.npr.org. Fact-checking by Tyler Jones. Music by Drop Electric. Find us: TikTok, Instagram, Facebook, Newsletter. Learn more about sponsor message choices: podcastchoices.com/adchoices NPR Privacy Policy
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单集文稿 ...

  • Npr.

  • This is the indicator from Planet Money.

  • I'm Darian Woods.

  • And I'm Waylon Wong.

  • It is jobs Friday.

  • That means we have the latest numbers on the US labor market from the Bureau of Labor Statistics.

  • The jobs report shows that 151,000 jobs were added in February.

  • The unemployment rate nudged up to 4.1% from 4% in January.

  • The monthly jobs report is one of the major economic indicators that we rely

  • on the government to produce.

  • And generally, we trust that this data gives us an accurate snapshot of how US Workers are doing.

  • But recently we've seen government data disappearing from public websites.

  • We've seen Doge getting access to sensitive information.

  • And in the past week,

  • Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick has disbanded two committees of

  • outside experts that advise the government on economic data.

  • He also talked about changing how gross domestic product gets calculated.

  • And people like Erika Groschen are concerned.

  • Erika is a former commissioner of the Bureau of Labor Statistics.

  • She was also on one of the committees that Lutnick just nixed.