What really goes on at the Bureau of Labor Statistics (Update)

By Darian Woods,

Wailin Wong, Julia Ritchey, Kate Concannon, Jess Kung, Viet Le

Published August 4, 2025 at 9:07 AM EDT

On Friday, we reported on the latest jobs numbers from the Bureau of Labor Statistics, which showed weaker than expected growth. On Friday afternoon, President Trump fired the person in charge of those numbers.

The monthly jobs report is a critical tool for the economy, used by businesses to make decisions and the Federal Reserve to set rates. So how exactly are those figures collected? Today, we're re-airing our behind-the-scenes look at how the BLS puts together the jobs report, one call at a time.

This show originally aired June 6, 2022.

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Fact-checking by Sierra Juarez. Music by Drop Electric. Find us: TikTok, Instagram, Facebook, Newsletter.

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Darian Woods

Darian Woods is a reporter and producer for The Indicator from Planet Money. He blends economics, journalism, and an ear for audio to tell stories that explain the global economy. He's reported on the time the world got together and solved a climate crisis, vaccine intellectual property explained through cake baking, and how Kit Kat bars reveal hidden economic forces.

See stories by Darian Woods

Wailin Wong

Wailin Wong is a long-time business and economics journalist who's reported from a Chilean mountaintop, an embalming fluid factory and lots of places in between. She is a host of The Indicator from Planet Money. Previously, she launched and co-hosted two branded podcasts for a software company and covered tech and startups for the Chicago Tribune. Wailin started her career as a correspondent for Dow Jones Newswires in Buenos Aires. In her spare time, she plays violin in one of the oldest community orchestras in the U.S.

Julia Ritchey

Julia Ritchey is an audio journalist with 15 years experience reporting, editing and podcasting all over the country. She's reported from eight states and all four U.S. time zones, most recently at Nashville Public Radio, Tennessee's largest NPR affiliate, overseeing the station's policy, environmental and education beats.

Kate Concannon

Kate Concannon is the Supervising Senior Editor at The Indicator from Planet Money. She leads this small, collaborative team of hosts, reporters and producers in making sense of crucial, but often complex and confusing, economic news in just 10 minutes a day.

Jess Kung

Jess Kung (they/them) is a production assistant on Code Switch. Previously, they interned with Code Switch and the podcast The Document from KCRW in Santa Monica. They are a graduate of Long Beach State University.

Viet Le

Viet Le (he/him) is a senior producer at The Indicator from Planet Money, NPR's daily economics podcast. Before that, he edited and helped launch NPR's daily science podcast, Short Wave. His career at NPR started at All Things Considered in 2008, first as a booker and then producer. He also spent a couple of years helping to get NPR One off the ground, and worked as an editor on Weekend Edition. But no matter what his professional accomplishments at the network, he will perhaps be most remembered in the newsroom for convincing a Virginia farmer to put lipstick on one of his pigs for an ATC segment.