Statistics and politics are a dangerous mix

HOW much longer can we trust government statistics?

After staffing shortages at the US Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) reportedly affected the agency’s ability to collect data for the consumer price index (CPI) last month, a handful of Democratic senators wrote to the Department of Labor demanding to know how it affected the agency’s statistics. Earlier this year, the government made the radical move to dissolve several external expert advisory committees that served the BLS and the Bureau of Economic Analysis. Meanwhile, across industries as diverse as medicine, insurance and education, professionals are dealing with the outright disappearance of data from government websites.

But to answer the question: We can trust the statistics at least until the “Improving Performance, Accountability and Responsiveness in the Civil Service” regulation, proposed by the Office of Personnel Management in April, goes into effect. After that, all bets are off.