Is There Hope for the Credibility of U.S. CPI? Labor Department Receives Hiring Freeze Exemption

The U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics is urgently recruiting price collectors for its first large-scale hiring this year. The increase in personnel may alleviate the agency's data trust crisis.

With the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) receiving a federal hiring freeze exemption, the agency's personnel shortage is expected to improve.

BLS has posted more than 24 part-time job openings that will be responsible for collecting price data. This marks the agency's first large-scale recruitment this year—previously, the hiring freeze implemented by the Trump administration forced BLS to cut back on the collection of price data that supports inflation statistics.

The hiring freeze is expected to last at least until mid-October, but a BLS spokesperson stated in an email: 'BLS is currently authorized to make exceptions for hiring CPI data collectors.'

The new positions are distributed across many locations nationwide, from Tampa, Florida, to Anchorage, Alaska. Job requirements include visiting stores and households in person to record prices and rents, with hourly wages ranging from $20 to $25 depending on regional differences.

In recent months, the shortage of price collectors has forced BLS to reduce the volume of price data collection, instead employing imputation methods for estimates. Lincoln, Nebraska (due to the passing of a price collector last year), Buffalo, New York, and Provo, Utah, have even completely halted on-site pricing.

The nationwide personnel shortage has also led to a further contraction in the scope of data collection. Analyst Omair Sharif from consulting firm Inflation Insights estimates that about 19% of BLS's target price samples are currently not being collected.

BLS is under tremendous pressure from the U.S. President. Trump fired director Erika McEntarfer in early August due to the agency's disappointing employment report. Sharif noted that increasing staff could enhance data reliability.

'If these positions are filled quickly, the proportion of prices imputed in the CPI over the coming months is likely to decrease significantly, which would substantially reduce the margin of error in current inflation estimates.' He wrote in a report to clients on Monday.