US Labor Department statistical agency hiring part-time economists for the CPI report

WASHINGTON (Reuters) -The Labor Department's Bureau of Labor Statistics, under fire for recent sharp downward revisions to U.S. nonfarm payrolls and reductions to inflation data collection, is hiring about 25 part-time assistant economists, job postings showed. The positions advertised on USAjobs.gov, scattered across the country, are in the BLS's Division of Price Programs, namely the Consumer Price Index (CPI) program. The Labor Department's inspector general's office said last week it was initiating a review of challenges the statistical agency faced in collecting and reporting economic data.