• Trump's Bureau of Labor Statistics nominee floated halting the US jobs report in a Fox News Digital interview.
• E.J. Antoni, a Heritage Foundation economist, was nominated after Trump fired the previous commissioner.
• The BLS has faced challenges with data accuracy due to limited resources and response rates.

E.J. Antoni, President Donald Trump's pick to lead the Bureau of Labor Statistics and the chief economist at the right-leaning Heritage Foundation, floated pausing the monthly jobs report amid accuracy concerns. Market pros say that would be a terrible move.

Antoni told Fox News Digital on August 4 in an interview before his nomination that, "until it is corrected, the BLS should suspend issuing the monthly job reports but keep publishing the more accurate, though less timely, quarterly data."

Economists and market strategists told Business Insider on Tuesday that such a move would be damaging for investors and economic planners. It could lower trust in the timeliest data on unemployment and job growth, which gives insight into how corporate earnings will perform and the broader state of the US economy.

"The markets depend on employment reports and the inflation reports and those types of things for direction," said Lance Roberts, the chief strategist at RIA Advisors, which manages $2 billion. "You try to suspend that data, without really good reason, that's going to cause problems for markets."

Roberts said that it's important to keep the monthly pace for the non-farm payrolls report, and that revisions are part of the data-collection process.

"We revise GDP data every year, and then we revise it every three years, and the markets never freak out," he said, adding: "Markets run real-time, they need real-time data."

Max Stier, the president and CEO of Partnership for Public Service, told Business Insider that BLS data plays a key role in both the overall economy and people's financial decisions.

"It is imperative that the bureau continues to report this information in a timely, unbiased way to preserve its trustworthiness as an institution," Stier said.

Stier added that if Antoni is confirmed by the Senate to take on the commissioner role, he urges "Antoni to partner with the bureau's expert civil service to maintain the nonpartisan collection and presentation of their economic data."

Elizabeth Renter, senior economist at NerdWallet, said the monthly jobs data shouldn't be suspended or delayed.

"The biggest revisions to jobs data often happen when the economy hits a turning point — economists and economic policymakers largely understand this," Renter said. "To slow the availability of the data at such a juncture could severely hamper the ability of the Fed to conduct effective monetary policy, among other things."

Not everyone agrees, however. Irene Tunkel, the chief strategist of US equity strategy at BCA Research, told Business Insider on Tuesday that moving to a quarterly pace where the BLS has more time to survey businesses would be a better approach. Theoretically, a quarterly cadence would result in fewer revisions, Tunkel said, adding that the market can rely on private data from sources like ADP for more real-time information.

But private data sources don't have the funding that the BLS does, and are therefore even less reliable, said Preston Caldwell, a US economist at Morningstar.

"If markets believed the CES conveyed no useful information, they would already ignore it — no damage done. So why suspend it? There's not a good substitute for the CES," Caldwell wrote in an email, referencing the Current Employment Statistics survey that produces the monthly job creation numbers from the BLS.

"If there was a cheap way to do it, a third-party data provider might be doing it already. But that's not the case."

Antoni's comments follow a worse-than-expected July jobs report

Antoni was nominated to the BLS role on August 11 after Trump fired former commissioner and Biden appointee Dr. Erika McEntarfer on August 1.

"Our Economy is booming, and E.J. will ensure that the Numbers released are HONEST and ACCURATE," Trump wrote in a Truth Social post.

A disappointing jobs report showed the US economy added 73,000 jobs in July, missing the consensus 106,000, and revisions to the previous two months showed there were way fewer jobs added than earlier reported. Revisions are a normal part of the BLS data collection, though the agency has struggled in recent years with limited resources and declining survey response rates.

The president claimed that the data was "RIGGED in order to make the Republicans, and ME, look bad."

'"How on earth are businesses supposed to plan — or how is the Fed supposed to conduct monetary policy — when they don't know how many jobs are being added or lost in our economy? It's a serious problem that needs to be fixed immediately," Antoni told Fox News Digital, adding, "major decision-makers from Wall Street to D.C. rely on these numbers, and a lack of confidence in the data has far-reaching consequences."

Antoni has not yet been confirmed as commissioner. The Heritage Foundation and BLS did not immediately respond to Business Insider's requests for comment.

"Hiding the numbers just makes it that much harder to use the tools available to avoid further economic pain, prepare for what people need, and guard against a recession," former acting Secretary of Labor Julie Su told Business Insider.

Asked whether the BLS would continue to put out a monthly payrolls report, White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt said in a press conference on Tuesday that she believes that will be the case.

"I believe that is the plan and that's the hope and that these monthly reports will be data that the American people can trust," Leavitt said.

• Real GDP increased at an annualized rate of 3% in the second quarter, more than expected.
• That reverses the shrinking economy in the first quarter, but tariffs cloud future performance.
• The report is just one of several this week that highlight how the economy is doing.

US real gross domestic product grew at an annualized rate of 3% in the second quarter, surpassing the forecast of 2.5% and a sharp rebound from the first quarter's decline.

"Compared to the first quarter, the upturn in real GDP in the second quarter primarily reflected a downturn in imports and an acceleration in consumer spending that were partly offset by a downturn in investment," the Bureau of Economic Analysis said.

Real personal consumer spending rose 1.4% in the second quarter, surpassing the 0.5% increase in the first. Fixed investment rose just 0.4% in the second quarter after a 7.6% increase in the first quarter.

After a 37.9% increase in the first quarter, imports fell 30.3% in the second quarter as President Donald Trump's tariff push heated up. Imports are subtracted in the GDP calculation. Exports fell 1.8% in the second quarter, after a 0.4% rise in the first.

"The consumer has been resilient despite recent volatility and policy uncertainty, and any employment weakness will be viewed as a bellwether for weakening consumption, which would likely push the Fed to resume cutting rates sooner," said Ryan Weldon, investment director and portfolio manager at IFM Investors.

Other releases beyond Wednesday's Bureau of Economic Analysis report indicate how the economy is doing. The Federal Reserve's Beige Book covering economic conditions between late May and early July said five of the 12 Fed districts had slight or modest economic gains and another five reported flat activity, compared to three with slight economic growth and three with no change in activity in the previous report.

The Beige Book also said there was a slight improvement in employment. Analysts and economists told Business Insider that the labor market is good if you have a job, and is not so great if you're a job seeker.

Trump's widespread tariffs are supposed to start on August 1 after a few pauses. The US and EU announced a trade deal on Sunday, including a 15% tariff rate on goods imported from the EU with some exceptions, Europe purchasing billions of dollars in US energy, and eliminating tariffs on US industrial goods.

On Wednesday afternoon, the Federal Reserve will announce its newest decision on interest rates, which economists and analysts expect to be held steady for the fifth straight decision. More data will be out this week, including the jobs report from the Bureau of Labor Statistics and monthly consumer spending from the Bureau of Economic Analysis.

• The New York Fed analyzed the mid-career wages of college graduates with a bachelor's degree.
• Graduates aged 35 to 45 in 19 areas of study had a median wage of at least $100,000 a year. 
• Ten of those 19 college majors were related to engineering.

When undergraduate college students choose their majors, there can be several factors that go into their decisions.

But if maximizing one's future earnings is high on their priority list, some areas of study have a better track record than others.

A New York Fed analysis of 2023 American Community Survey data found that college graduates who majored in one of 19 areas of study had a median mid-career wage of at least $100,000 a year. The New York Fed defined mid-career as people between the ages of 35 and 45. The analysis of 73 majors and groups of study only included people with a bachelor's degree — no additional graduate school education — and used what's noted as people's first major.

One general area of study accounted for 10 of the 19 spots: engineering.

Aerospace engineering majors had the top median mid-career wage of $125,000, per the analysis. Three other engineering fields followed behind — computer, chemical, and electrical.

Jaison Abel, the head of microeconomics at the New York Fed, told Business Insider that engineering is a great example of the type of college major that has the quantitative skills businesses tend to want.

"There is a bit of a premium on the demand side, and also these are relatively challenging majors to get through," Abel said. "When you've got quite a bit of demand for the skills and not as much supply of the types of people who are coming in, that's going to make wages overall go up and be high."

Computer science, economics, and finance were the three non-engineering majors with the highest mid-career median wages. Across all the majors analyzed, the median mid-career wage was $83,000 a year.

While the prospect of high mid-career earnings is likely attractive to many students, this appeal hinges on actually landing a job in their field of study — a feat that has become increasingly difficult for some college graduates.

A New York Fed analysis of unemployment data showed 5.8% of recent college graduates in the labor force between the ages of 22 and 27 were unemployed in March, up from 3.9% in October 2022. Absent the pandemic-related spike and its recovery over the next year, that's the highest rate since 2013.

Student loans and the cost of college may affect how a degree is valued

As college tuition rates have risen in recent decades, many Americans have taken on a considerable amount of student debt. In 2024 dollars, the average price for tuition and fees at private nonprofit, four-year schools has increased 30% from the 2004-05 academic year to $43,350 for the 2024-25 academic year. Public, four-year in-state schools are much cheaper, but their average cost has also climbed during that timeframe. Housing and food expenses make the cost of school even higher.

The average American consumer with student loans had a debt balance of about $35,000 as of the third quarter of last year, per Experian data. That's a decline from the average in the third quarter of 2023.

This changing landscape has caused some people to question whether college is a worthwhile investment. In response to these concerns, some high school graduates have gone straight to the workforce, while others have opted for alternative paths, like community college or trade schools.

Not all job openings require someone to have a particular level of education. However, sometimes a college degree is preferred for a job seeker. Automaker Stellantis said in a previous statement that "most non-bargaining unit positions (salaried) require an associate's or bachelor's degree," but also noted that "for some positions, a degree might be a preferred qualification which would open those up to people who can demonstrate proficiency in other ways."

College graduates who majored in early childhood education had the lowest median mid-career wage, at $49,000 a year. Other types of education majors had relatively low mid-career median wages, such as secondary education.

• Education and healthcare roles drove unexpected job growth in June.
• But employment in state and local government education and healthcare masked weakness in other sectors.
• White-collar job seekers face challenges as professional services shed roles from May to June.

Sharpen your pencils and shine your stethoscopes: If you're looking for the drivers of the resilient labor market, they might be behind a desk at your local school or staffing your local hospital.

They were largely responsible for a June jobs report that came in hotter than expected, with the country adding 147,000 jobs — far outpacing the consensus forecast of 111,000 — and unemployment unexpectedly ticking down.

Payroll additions in state and local government education, as well as private healthcare and social services, masked weakness elsewhere. Those sectors alone added about 122,000 jobs in June. White-collar job seekers are facing a struggle, as roles feel increasingly scarce and hundreds of applications lead to dead ends.

"If you're not a teacher, if you're not a nurse, and you're not a doctor, you're not seeing those opportunities," Cory Stahle, an economist at the Indeed Hiring Lab, said. An industry breakdown of payrolls shows that professional and business services, a white-collar sector, shed roles from May to June.

The gains in education and healthcare might be in part because schools were more hesitant to let folks go this summer, perhaps due to ongoing teacher labor shortages.

"Probably what's going on here is that there were smaller-than-expected summer layoffs in the education sector, which could be about teachers or it could also be about support staff, like school bus drivers or custodial staff," Daniel Zhao, lead economist at Glassdoor, said.

If that is the case, Zhao said, "we might get an equivalently sized drop in the fall when schools reopen due to a smaller-than-expected hiring." He added that the new data is likely a seasonal quirk, rather than a sustainable increase in roles.

The private sector, which encompasses roles outside government employment, added 74,000 jobs in June, missing the expected 105,000. Within that, employment in the healthcare and social assistance sector increased by 58,600.

Stahle said that with healthcare, social assistance, and state and local government making up much of the job growth in June, "that's not necessarily reflective of a robust labor market that's benefiting everybody."

For workers who already have the qualifications for teaching and healthcare, which often require degrees or specialized training, June's numbers may be a good sign. But for everyone else, the job market is still looking murky.

"If you're already in the labor market, you're in pretty good shape," Stahle said. "But if you're out of it and you're looking for work, things are going to feel a lot different right now."

Are you a white-collar professional looking for work, or are you trying to get into education or healthcare? Contact these reporters to share your story at [email protected] and [email protected].