Senate confirms Brett Matsumoto as BLS commissioner
Senate confirms career economist Brett Matsumoto as BLS commissioner, aiming to restore trust after predecessor's firing and address data gaps.
The U.S. Senate has confirmed Brett Matsumoto as commissioner of the Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS), filling a leadership void that has persisted since President Donald Trump dismissed the previous commissioner a year ago. The 51-47 vote, part of a broader confirmation package for sub-cabinet positions, places a career economist with deep agency experience at the helm.
Matsumoto, who holds a Ph.D. in economics from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, joined the BLS in 2015 and was on leave serving at the White House Council of Economic Advisers when tapped for the role. He replaces Erika McEntarfer, whom Trump fired last August over unsubstantiated claims that she manipulated the July 2025 employment report, which showed unexpectedly slow job growth and large downward revisions to prior months' payroll figures.
His appointment has been welcomed by private economists and former BLS leadership. Erica Groshen, who served as commissioner from 2013 to 2017, noted that Matsumoto's insider status and lack of political publications make him a reassuring choice. At his June confirmation hearing, Matsumoto pledged to maintain the agency's integrity, stating that decisions should be driven by science rather than politics, and emphasized he would be the only political appointee at the BLS.
The agency faces significant challenges. Years of inadequate funding, mass layoffs, and resignations have left more than a third of senior-level positions vacant. Resource constraints forced the BLS to reduce its Consumer Price Index collection sample and discontinue about 350 producer price indexes. A 43-day government shutdown last year caused unprecedented gaps in data publication, including the unemployment rate and monthly inflation figures.
Concerns also persist over the Trump administration's push to reclassify tens of thousands of federal employees under a new "Schedule Policy/Career" category, which unions argue would make workers easier to replace with political loyalists. Groshen warned that applying this classification within statistical agencies could undermine trust in the data they produce.