US inflation data collection hurt by Trump-era hiring freeze: Report

Federal government staffing shortages from Trump administration hiring freezes have forced the Labor Department's economic statistics arm to curtail the breadth of its data collection for one of the main measures of US inflation, the Wall Street Journal reported on Wednesday. 

The paper said the Bureau of Labor Statistics beginning in April reduced the number of businesses at which it checks prices for the benchmark Consumer Price Index report, citing the hiring freeze that President Donald Trump imposed on his first day back in office, January 20. 

The CPI temporarily reduced the number of outlets and quotes it attempted to collect due to a staffing shortage in certain CPI cities, beginning in April, a BLS email to private economists and shared with the Journal read. These procedures will be kept in place until the hiring freeze is lifted, and additional staff can be hired and trained. The Labor Department and BLS did not immediately respond to requests for comment from Reuters. 

CPI is among the most closely watched economic datasets published by the US government, relied upon by economists, investors and policymakers for near-real-time estimates of the state of inflation. It provides a monthly snapshot of changes both to prices overall and among hundreds of separate products and services ranging from eggs to eyeglasses and airline tickets to automobiles.