Jesse Rothstein

Looking for a 2 page explanation of CES Benchmark revisions? I wrote one at www.congress.gov/crs-product/...

Dr. Erika McEntarfer has devoted her career to public service. She has conducted herself as BLS Commissioner with great integrity. There is no evidence whatsoever that BLS data are politically biased.

#econsky

President Trump called into question the integrity of the Employment Situation report that the BLS released this morning. He accused BLS Commissioner Erika McEntarfer of deliberately reporting false numbers to reflect poorly on this administration. This baseless, damaging claim undermines the valuable work and dedication of BLS staff who produce the reports each month. This escalates the President’s unprecedented attacks on the independence and integrity of the federal statistical system. The President seeks to blame someone for unwelcome economic news. The Commissioner does not determine what the numbers are but simply reports on what the data show. The process of obtaining the numbers is decentralized by design to avoid opportunities for interference. The BLS uses the same proven, transparent, reliable process to produce estimates every month. Every month, BLS revises the prior two months’ employment estimates to reflect slower-arriving, more-accurate information. This rationale for firing Dr. McEntarfer is without merit and undermines the credibility of federal economic statistics that are a cornerstone of intelligent economic decision-making by businesses, families, and policymakers. U.S. official statistics are the gold standard globally. When leaders of other nations have politicized economic data, it has destroyed public trust in all official statistics and in government science. We call on Congress to respond immediately, to investigate the factors that led to Commissioner McEntarfer’s removal, to strongly urge the Commissioner’s continued service, and ensure that the nonpartisan integrity of the position is retained. The statement from the President undermines these tenets and politicizes data which cannot and should not be used for political points.

"...escalates the President’s unprecedented attacks on the independence & integrity of the federal statistical system.

"The president seeks to blame someone for unwelcome economic news.

"...firing Dr. McEntarfer is without merit & undermines the credibility of federal economic statistics..."

Column on the Responsibility of Israelis to Speak Up Against Mass Starvation in Gaza I generally restrict my comments here to economic issues, but some things are hard to ignore.

This piece is very moving, and reflects how I am feeling about the Israel/Gaza calamity.

Silence in the Face of Gaza's Starvation is Absolute Betrayal of Holocaust Victims
By Orit Kamir
Originally published in Haaretz

substack.com/home/post/p-...

Thanks to @deanbaker13.bsky.social for posting it.

I just donated to Sameer Project and World Central Kitchen. Please join me. Links in the below post.

This has changed a lot in the last couple decades - start and end dates are both much earlier. My untested hypothesis is that it is an effort to get more of the school year before the spring standardized testing dates.

to Jews, on the Gaza famine an open letter: we have been commanded

I just sent this out.

The Jewish people have moral frameworks for this moment.

It is a choice not to heed them.

Please let us meet this moment, let us see the shattered Temple around us, right now, and our responsibility to it.

Opinion | Columbia’s Administrators Are Fooling Themselves

A timely and trenchant piece by Suresh Naidu. When future generations sift through the wreckage of our era, they’ll find it strewn with the institutional and personal failures of leaders both great and small.

www.nytimes.com/2025/07/23/o...

Aerial view of college campus, with river in background

Friday is the application deadline for our 2025 Dissertation Award, given to the best policy-focused Ph.D. dissertation on employment-related issues. First prize is $2,500 and up to two honorable mention awards of $1,000 may also be given.
Details at www.upjohn.org/dissertation...

Finished a Ph.D. dissertation related to employment during July 1, 2023 to June 30, 2025?

Does it have policy relevance?

Do you like winning money? Awards?

If yeses, consider applying. Get more info and check out the list of past winners.
#EconSky #Sociology #policysky #polisky #FundSocSci

I’m a quant and a much better cook than baker.

It is based on a fairly sophisticated statistical model. But it doesn't always do a great job of capturing calendar quirks like this - one often sees statistical mirages around holidays, especially ones that move in the calendar.

I have a hypothesis: June 1 was a Sunday this year, so the reference week was earlier in the month than usual. My guess is that some districts/colleges that are usually out for the summer by the reference wk but were still in session this year, and that accounts for the rise in SA education jobs.

Next up: the World Labor Conference in Toronto! The SOLE Mentoring Program (🙏 @jrothst.bsky.social et al) started off yesterday with a great session on replication with @larsvil.bsky.social - and on Saturday I'll be presenting our work on Human Wealth Inequality (w/ @danielwaldenstrom.bsky.social)!

All of these pictures are filling my heart. I believe we can win.

Shout out to the wonderful @matthewakraft.bsky.social and Papay paper that was the one that convinced me on this.
doi.org/10.1016/j.jp...

University of California Consumer Credit Panel (UC-CCP) - California Policy Lab An anonymized consumer credit dataset designed for analyzing financial well-being and trends in credit, debt, income, and mobility among California households.

Find out more about the @capolicylab.bsky.social's UC-CCP here:
capolicylab.org/data-resourc...

Great article in the JEL about Consumer Credit Panel research:
pubs.aeaweb.org/doi/pdfplus/...

An important correction: Projects with the University of California CCP (UC-CCP) require a U. Calif. coauthor, but if that condition is met all coauthors can access the data, not just the affiliated one.

This is monstrous.

This seems unlikely to me. It just isn't that easy to add lots of undergrads - even if you aren't going to offer more classes and just want to cram more students in, you need classroom space, dorms, etc. Maybe some public elites have spare capacity, but I'd be surprised.

We're thrilled to announce three outstanding researchers are joining the Upjohn Institute:
Chloe Gibbs @chloergibbs.bsky.social and Monique Davis @monique-e-davis.bsky.social in August
and Ethan Jenkins June 2.
Welcome!
#laboreconomics #econsky

Congratulations to the 2024 CJA Winners! - CNPA Congratulations to the 2024 California Journalism Awards Finalists! We’re proud to honor the outstanding work of this year’s finalists, who placed in the top five of at least one of their entered cate...

Thrilled to see (belatedly) that @capitalandmain.bsky.social took home 37 (!!) awards at the California Journalism Awards, including the series I edit, Striking Back. cnpa.com/california-j...

Connecticut should be studied by mathematicians as a topological anomaly. Some parts of it are farther apart than should be possible in a state its size.

This is horrific.

Help us find our next Executive Editor 🎯

The Bourne Inequality

Two Hobbits

The Penultimate Jedi

7/n but the white house's presentation is bullshit because the reconciliation stuff is a one-time pot. so if you cut your annual but ameliorate with one-time stuff, that can help for now, but when the one-time runs out, you're fucked.

Thank you! It seems like that should be in the headlines.

Could you expand on that?

Here's another one: bsky.app/profile/fisc... What is missing here?