The Bureau of Labor Statistics last week issued a steep downward revision to May and June's hiring numbers, prompting President Trump to call the edits "miscalculations" by the department's commissioner, whom he subsequently fired, in a social media post on Aug. 1.

The Bureau of Labor Statistics uses surveys to collect economic data including employment counts, wages and inflation.

President Trump’s pick to run the federal agency that produces the critical U.S. jobs report might not be able to make it more reliable — and a new commissioner could even make the problems worse.