The Importance of Accurate Data Provided by the Bureau of Labor Statistics

(This article appeared in the September/October 2025 issue of The American Postal Worker magazine)

On Aug. 1, the U.S. president fired the Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) Director Erika McEntarfer. This job is historically apolitical and is held by expert economists who look at data, not politics. McEntarfer was fi red after the BLS released a jobs report that showed slow growth in July, while numbers for May and June were revised down. It is common for this monthly report to include revisions up or down for previously reported months.

If you are asking why I am writing about this, it is because the data that comes out of the BLS directly impacts you and your pay. The APWU also uses BLS data in contract negotiations, labor research, and preparation for future negotiations. Having reliable, apolitical data that is not influenced by one political party or another, is vital to the integrity of some of our contract provisions.

In the several collective bargaining agreements between the APWU and the Postal Service, including the National Agreement covering clerks, maintenance, motor vehicle, operating services, and material support services employees; Information Technology/Accounting Services; and Human Resources Shared Service Center; career employees receive cost-of-living adjustments (COLAs) based on changes to the Consumer Price Index (CPI) for Urban Wage Earners and Clerical Workers (1967=100). Postal nurses rely on the Employment Cost Index (ECI) for their annual pay increases. It is not just current workers who rely on BLS data for pay increases. Postal retirees, Social Security recipients, and those receiving workers’ compensation payments also rely on the BLS data sets for their annual increases. Having accurate and apolitical data is vital to ensuring pay increases accurately reflect inflation.

What may seem like a mundane unimportant executive dismissal is alarming to the Industrial Relations Department.

What if we can no longer trust the data being released? Will the data truly reflect what is happening in the economy? Or is the data being manipulated to please one person in power? No matter the party of the president in office at the time, this data must remain apolitical.

On Aug. 12, the CPI data for the second COLA of the main National Agreement was released. Our calculations show that the next COLA will be an $811 annual increase for career employees. Inflation has been trending upwards. But should this be a higher amount? Was this really the inflation we are seeing in the economy, or was it manipulated to please someone?

“It’s the economy, stupid,” said James Carville when advising former President Bill Clinton in his run for the White House. Economic numbers matter to people in elections. High inflation ends politicians’ careers. One could think that manipulating inflation to appear lower than it actually is could happen if it helps someone politically. Especially if they campaigned on lower consumer prices on their first day in office.

Higher COLAs mean you are paying more for your everyday goods, food, energy, housing, cars, and more. Yes, they do help recover lost buying power due to inflationary pressures. A higher COLA means it costs you more to live. A lower COLA or even a zero COLA means inflation is under control or even that prices are deflating. When we do receive a COLA, I would want to make sure all the data they are based on is accurate.

You can tell whether or not the data is accurate just by going to the grocery store and buying meat, milk, or vegetables. In the film The Wizard of Oz, it was the Great and Powerful Oz who said, “Pay no attention to that man behind the curtain.” Well, when it comes to our pay, we need to be paying attention to the man behind the curtain to make sure we are not conned out of what we are contractually owed. ■