That’s right, the BLS Commissioner’s position has been vacant since January 2012. A Deputy Commissioner has been doing double-duty — running his department and overseeing day-to-day ops for the entire BLS.
BLS org chart
Question: Has Labor Secretary Hilda Solis been providing the “quality control” of the numbers coming out of BLS this year?
So, during an important time period, BLS has either been (a) under-supervised, or (b) more aggressively managed from above by one of the President’s cabinet members.
Either way, sounds like what we in b-school call “sub-optimal”.
Hmmm.
Imagine if Jack Welch catches wind of this one.
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Story Line
Dr. Keith Hall was the Commissioner of the BLS from January 2008 to January 2012.
He was appointed by George W. Bush (uh-oh) and approved by the Senate to serve a 4-year term
When his term expired, President Obama cut him loose, and still hasn’t filled the position.
Since January, the entire Bureau of Labor Statistics has apparently been managed more directly by Secretary of Labor Hilda Solis, with day-to-day ops handled by Deputy Commissioners.
The Labor Secretary, of course, is a cabinet member reporting to President Obama
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Resume: Hilda Solis
Hilda Lucia Solis is the 25th United States Secretary of Labor, serving in the Obama administration.
She is a member of the Democratic Party and served in the United States House of Representatives from 2001 to 2009, representing the 31st and 32nd congressional districts of California.
She gained degrees from the California State Polytechnic University, Pomona (Cal Poly Pomona) and the University of Southern California (USC) and worked for two federal agencies in Washington, D.C.
She was elected to the Rio Hondo Community College Board of Trustees in 1985, the California State Assembly in 1992, and the California State Senate in 1994. She was the first Hispanic woman to serve in the State Senate, and was reelected there in 1998.
Solis was elected to the U.S. House of Representatives in 2000, where she focused mainly on labor causes and environmental work.
She was reelected easily to four subsequent terms.
In December 2008, President-elect Barack Obama announced his intention to nominate Solis as the next United States Secretary of Labor.
She took office after being confirmed by the United States Senate in February 2009, becoming the first Hispanic woman to serve in the U.S. Cabinet
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Resume: Dr. Keith Hall
Keith Hall received his Bachelor of Arts degree in Economics from the University of Virginia and M.S. and Ph.D. in Economics from Purdue University.
Prior to his government service, Dr. Hall was a full time-faculty member in the economics departments at the Universities of Arkansas and Missouri.
Dr. Hall had over 20 years of federal service with the Department of the Treasury, the International Trade Commission, the Department of Commerce, the Executive Office of the President, and BLS.
Prior to becoming BLS Commissioner, he served as Chief Economist for the White House Council of Economic Advisers, where he analyzed a broad range of fiscal, regulatory and macroeconomic policies and directed a team that monitored the state of the economy and developed economic forecasts.
He served as the Chief Economist for the U.S. Department of Commerce for four years. In that role, he was the principal economic adviser to the Under Secretary for Economic Affairs and served as a special adviser to the Secretary of Commerce.
Dr. Hall previously served as a Senior International Economist in the Research Division at the U.S. International Trade Commission, an independent agency that investigates any matter involving tariffs, international trade, and competition between U.S. and foreign industries.
In 2007, President George W. Bush nominated Dr. Hall to be the 13th Commissioner of the Bureau of Labor Statistics. He was confirmed by the Senate in December 2007 and officially sworn in to office in January 2008.
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Recent Developments
From Watchdog.com …
“Ex-BLS chief says unemployment data flawed”
The U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics’ method of calculating unemployment is a “flawed measure” that contains “real problems,” the agency’s former commissioner, Keith Hall told the Wisconsin Reporter on Tuesday.
He said: “The monthly unemployment data is an imperfect tool”.
Appointed by former President George W. Bush, Hall served as commissioner for much of Obama’s term in office (until January of this year).
Hall said he understands, even agrees with, some criticism of BLS unemployment data.
Among his concerns:
- The unemployment rate is “artificially low” because only people who are actively seeking employment are counted as “unemployed.” People who got frustrated and stopped looking for work aren’t technically “unemployed,” according to the data.
- The rate does a poor job measuring “underemployment,” those people who are working but not at the level or to the extent they should be, based on their education and experience. “If you worked one hour (in a given month), and got paid at all, you’re employed,” according to BLS data, Hall said
- The payroll survey, conducted by interviewing businesses and government agencies, gives a good, broad overview, but not a lot of information. The household survey gets a lot of information from households about their earnings, hours of work, demographics, etc. But Hall said the sample size probably needs to be larger for the statistics to be more accurate.
“And that’s the one that probably should be larger than it is,” he said. “It’s a cost thing.”
“There’s no one best single indicator that tells you about the health of the labor market,” Hall said.
“You have to look at a number of things.”
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Bottom line: In January, Obama sends an experienced, highly qualified BLS Commissioner packing. For the past 8 months, the BLS has been reporting to the Secretary of Labor – who has a deep political background, but no particular expertise in economic statistics. For the past 9 months (as frequently reported here in the HomaFiles) the BLS data has been arousing curiosity, culminating in last week’s incredible (i.e. not credible) pre-election unemployment report.
Hmmm.
The Homa Files 