Trump’s Policies May Undermine US Economic Indices

The policies of US President Donald Trump’s administration could undermine the reliability of key economic indicators, including the Consumer Price Index (CPI), reports The Economist.

The comprehensive information-gathering system is suffering due to increasing staff cuts at government agencies. By August 2025, data on producer prices in 34 industries will disappear. This could distort the overall picture of the world’s strongest economy, potentially leading to ineffective policies by the Federal Reserve and other more concerning consequences.

Efficiency

Employees of the US Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) track price changes for a “consumer basket” of goods and services in 75 cities. The analysis covers a wide range: from public transport fares to apartment rents and bottled water prices. The collected data form the Consumer Price Index, the main tool for calculating inflation.

Due to resource constraints, in April 2025, the BLS was forced to stop collecting data on living expenses in Lincoln, Nebraska, and Provo, Utah. In July, Buffalo, New York, joined the list. Plans for reorganization by August include excluding producer price data covering 350 economic indices, including ammunition and metalware production.

Many indicators like the CPI directly depend on citizen participation in surveys. From 2000 to 2019, participation in a key employment study dropped from 93% to 83%, and after the pandemic, to 67%. As a result of cuts, statistical agencies directly linked to the BLS, such as the Census Bureau and the Bureau of Economic Analysis, suffer. Over the past 20 years, congressional funding for this area has decreased by 18%.

According to The Economist, after a hiring freeze and the dismissal of temporary employees, the three agencies operate at only 60% of the required capacity. Due to staff shortages, the percentage of fabricated or inaccurate information is rising.

The BLS is obliged to provide economic indicators, however inaccurate they may be. If a specific product’s price cannot be found, the agency is forced to substitute the price of a similar item or even one from another region. During the pandemic, the percentage of such “guesses” rose from 8% to 16%, and in April and May 2025, to 30%.

Inaccurate and understated inflation figures could lead to reduced social security payments for millions of Americans. Overstated figures would cause another problem—unnecessary interest rate hikes by the Federal Reserve.

Trump’s budget proposes cutting BLS funding by another $56 million (8%), which will only worsen the situation, according to The Economist.

Consequences of Efficiency

According to the Layoffs service, which tracks layoffs worldwide, 61,296 government employees were laid off in 2025 as part of the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) initiative. A total of 171,843 federal employees left their jobs.

The staffing data from the private BigTech sector is equally grim. Over the past six months, 63,823 tech sector employees from 150 companies have been laid off.

According to TechCrunch, the situation in major tech companies is as follows:

• Google. Reduced its Smart TV development department by 25%, affecting 300 people. Funding for the area was cut by 10%, but investments in AI projects increased;

• Intel. Plans to cut 15% to 20% of employees in the Intel Foundry division starting in July. The division develops and manufactures semiconductors for external customers. As of December 2024, the company had 108,900 employees;

• Microsoft. Continues layoffs, cutting over 6,500 employees in May, about 3% of its workforce. The latest wave affected programmers, product managers, technical program managers, marketers, and lawyers;

• Amazon. Laid off about 100 employees from its devices and services division, which covers various areas, including the Alexa voice assistant, Echo smart speakers, Ring video doorbells, and Zoox robotaxis. Since early 2022, the company has cut about 27,000 people as part of cost-reduction measures.

Over the past year, there have been numerous layoffs in the blockchain industry and crypto companies.

In October 2024, the crypto exchange Kraken announced a corporate restructuring. The decision is expected to affect about 400 people out of approximately 2,600 total staff. In the same month, it became known about a strategic reorganization of a Web3 game developer. Sky Mavis, the studio behind Axie Infinity and the Ronin sidechain, laid off 21% of its employees.

At the end of last year, the largest mining pool Foundry (USA) reduced its staff by 27%—from 274 to 200 people, lowering the priority of its ASIC device production direction. In January 2025, the research firm Messari laid off 15% of its employees.

The situation has affected many specialists with experience in various aspects of the technological economy—from building complex system architectures to their financial viability.

The policy of the US “crypto president” at first glance seems to aim at dismantling the old notion of state prosperity. Can the “murkiness” of economic indices provoke a downgrade in the country’s credit and investment rating? This question remains open.

The bold bet on a national bitcoin reserve requires comprehensive maintenance by live employees, who are becoming fewer. Meanwhile, the lack of budgetary resources and, consequently, reliable data could cast a shadow not only on the traditional US economy but also on the crypto industry.

In June, the head of the Federal Reserve supported the regulation of stablecoins in the US.

ForkLog’s editorial team learned how the wealthiest holders of gold and bitcoin are preparing for global changes and where in the world it is easier to acquire physical precious metal.