Brett Matsumoto, President Trump’s pick to lead the Bureau of Labor Statistics, wants to reshape how the government counts things. Specifically, he wants to supplement (or in some cases replace) the traditional surveys that underpin everything from the Consumer Price Index to jobs reports with alternative data sources like scanner data and web-scraped prices.

A nominee shaped by the agency’s problems

Matsumoto is a career BLS economist who was serving on the Council of Economic Advisers when Trump nominated him on January 30, 2026. The Senate received that nomination on May 19, 2026, with a confirmation hearing expected sometime after June 3.

His predecessor, Erika McEntarfer, was fired in August 2025 following revisions to key jobs reports. The agency’s problems go deeper than personnel, though. BLS funding has declined over 22% from 2010 to 2025, and staff has been reduced by nearly 25% over a similar period. A 2025 government shutdown further disrupted operations, leading to the suspension of some key economic reports.

Matsumoto’s research directly addresses this resource crunch. He co-authored a BLS working paper in July 2025 that examined how alternative data sources could improve CPI accuracy while potentially reducing the agency’s dependence on expensive, labor-intensive survey methods.

What alternative data actually means

The BLS currently measures inflation primarily through surveys. Field agents visit stores, call businesses, and manually collect price data on thousands of goods and services.

Matsumoto’s approach involves supplementing this with two main types of alternative data. Scanner data comes from retail point-of-sale systems, capturing the actual transaction prices of millions of products in real time. Web-scraped prices are exactly what they sound like: automated collection of prices listed on e-commerce sites and online retailers.

Scanner data skews toward large retailers and packaged goods. It’s harder to capture services, housing costs, or prices in rural areas through these methods. Web-scraped prices don’t always reflect what consumers pay after discounts, coupons, or negotiated rates. And there’s the fundamental question of comparability: if you change how you measure something, you risk breaking the historical time series that economists and investors rely on for context.

What this means for investors

The Fed sets interest rates based partly on CPI data. Bond markets price in inflation expectations derived from BLS reports. Equity valuations shift when jobs numbers surprise to the upside or downside.

More accurate inflation data could also reduce the kind of large revisions that cost McEntarfer her job. When the government says the economy added 250,000 jobs and later revises that down to 150,000, the credibility hit ripples through every asset class.

Economists and advocacy groups have expressed optimism about the nomination, viewing Matsumoto’s technical background as a positive signal for restoring the agency’s credibility.