Labor Department watchdog to audit jobs and inflation reports from embattled BLS

WASHINGTON (AP) — A government watchdog says it will review how a Labor Department agency compiles and reports some of the nation’s highest profile economic data, just two days after the agency made a sharp downward revision in its estimate of the number of jobs.

A spokesperson for the department’s Office of the Inspector General said Wednesday that it is launching a review of “the challenges that Bureau of Labor Statistics encounters collecting and reporting closely watched economic data.”

The audit will focus on the agency’s reports on inflation and employment, a Wednesday letter to BLS acting commissioner William Wiatrowski said. Both reports are considered definitive measures of those two key aspects of the U.S. economy. The letter was from Laura Nicolosi, assistant inspector general