Can we still trust the monthly jobs report? (Update)

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• 00:01

  NPR. This is The Indicator from Planet Money.

• 00:13

  I'm Darian Woods.

• 00:14

  And I'm Waylon Wong.

• 00:15

  President Donald Trump said this week that he will soon announce his pick to lead the Bureau of Labor Statistics.

• 00:22

  He fired the previous head on Friday after accusing her of manipulating the jobs numbers.

• 00:28

  The president presented no evidence that the jobs report was phony.

• 00:31

  Neither did Trump's economic advisor, Kevin Hassett, when he went on NBC's Meet the Press this week.

• 00:37

  Hassett told host Kristen Welker that the president wants his own people at the BLS.

• 00:42

  Is the president planning to fire all 40 people involved in putting these numbers together?

• 00:46

  We're going to try to get the numbers so that they're transparent and reliable.

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  Transparent and reliable data are vital to the economy.

• 00:54

  The monthly jobs report moves markets.

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  The Federal Reserve, policymakers,

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  and everyday businesses use the information to make decisions that affect all of us.

• 01:03

  So the numbers need to be trustworthy.

• 01:06

  If people don't trust the data, then you might as well not produce it.

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  That's Erika Groschen, a former BLS commissioner.

• 01:15

  She was also part of a committee of outside experts that advised the government on economic data.

• 01:20

  The Trump administration disbanded that committee earlier this year.

• 01:24

  We talked to Erika then about how we can trust official statistics like the monthly jobs report.

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