Federal Data Users

I find these comments from Secretary Chavez-DeRomer troubling, but they certainly align with the vitriol we typically see from this administration. 

I agree with most of the economic experts who rightly point out that while the revisions are in fact large, relative to the base, they aren't terribly different from revisions we have seen in the past. 

As someone who used to work for workforce commissions in both Texas and Wisconsin, and went through the annual revision process itself, there is nothing in these revisions that would indicate to me anything untoward or inherent in the processes that would explain these revisions. I do not know if the sample size of businesses that participate in the CES (or similar series) has gone down over the years. Still, I would argue that's likely a bigger culprit here than "utilizing outdated methods" - the methods are pretty simple. It's a sample-based estimate that gets benchmarked when administrative data from ES-202 (Quarterly Census of Employment and Wages) becomes available. 

And having worked directly with the statisticians and professionals at BLS, it pains me to see this institution being dragged through the mud, but that seems to be the conventional wisdom these days. Sad.