Dr. E.J. Antoni III, of Montgomery Township (Credit: https://www.heritage.org/staff/ej-antoni-phd)
Dr. E.J. Antoni III’s nomination follows removal of Biden-appointed commissioner
A 2006 Lansdale Catholic graduate has been tapped by President Donald Trump to lead the federal agency responsible for collecting and publishing U.S. jobs and inflation data.
Dr. Erwin "E.J." Antoni III, who lived on White Pine Drive in Montgomery Township, was nominated Monday to serve as commissioner of the Bureau of Labor Statistics. The nomination will require Senate confirmation before Antoni can assume the role, according to Newsweek.
Trump announced the pick on his Truth Social account, calling Antoni a “highly respected economist.”
The move came the same day Trump fired Erika McEntarfer, a Biden appointee confirmed by the Senate in 2023, accusing her without evidence of manipulating jobs data for political purposes, per CNN.
Antoni currently serves as chief economist and Richard Aster fellow at The Heritage Foundation’s Grover M. Hermann Center for the Federal Budget, per the Heritage Foundation’s website.
The conservative think tank played a leading role in crafting Project 2025, a sweeping policy blueprint for potential Republican administrations that includes proposals to restructure the federal civil service.
A frequent guest on national television and radio, Antoni has been an outspoken critic of the BLS and its data collection methods.
On Aug. 1, during an appearance on Trump ally Steve Bannon’s podcast, Antoni called McEntarfer “incompetent” while discussing disappointing July job numbers and downward revisions to prior months. Later that day, Trump removed McEntarfer from the post, according to CNN.
Antoni earned both his master’s degree in economics in 2018 and his doctorate in fiscal policy and labor economics in 2020 from Northern Illinois University. He has taught college-level courses ranging from labor economics to money and banking, previously worked as an economist at the Texas Public Policy Foundation, and presented research before Congress and state legislatures.
If confirmed, Antoni will oversee the BLS, a division of the U.S. Department of Labor tasked with producing data used by policymakers, businesses and the public to gauge the nation’s economic health.
