US Bureau of Labor Statistics under scrutiny again for latest data misstep

(Reuters) - The U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics is once again under scrutiny after closely watched job market data due for public release on Wednesday was inexplicably delayed but still found its way onto social media platforms before the agency posted it.

The preliminary annual benchmark revision for nonfarm payrolls was due for release at 10 a.m. on Wednesday but the figure - a reduction of 818,000 jobs estimated for the total level of employment in March - was not published to the BLS website for more than 30 minutes after that scheduled time.

Meanwhile, postings on the X social media platform showed some individuals had gained access to the correct figure at around 10:15 a.m.

BLS spokesperson Stacey Standish said the data was delayed unintentionally but she offered no explanation for why, adding that the matter had been referred to the Labor Department's Office of Inspector General (OIG).

"The integrity of our data releases is BLS' top priority and we are closely reviewing our procedures to ensure this does not happen in the future," Standish said.

The incident on Wednesday was the third this year in which data was mishandled by the agency.

In May, a subset of key and highly sensitive inflation data from the consumer price index series was inadvertently published about 30 minutes ahead of its scheduled release. And earlier this year an agency economist was reported to have been sharing undisclosed technical calculations underlying some of the data from the CPI series with economists in the private sector.

A call and email to the department's OIG seeking an update on the status of its investigations of the two earlier incidents were not immediately returned.

(Reporting by Dan Burns; Editing by Paul Simao)