Economists and market strategists warn that the U.S. employment picture is weaker than headline numbers suggest and that the quality of federal labor statistics is increasingly in question after the Trump administration dismissed the head of the Bureau of Labor Statistics earlier this year. Business Insider analysis points to a contraction of 790,000 people in the labor force between April and July—the first three-month decline since 2011—while the unemployment rate has held at 4.2%. The shrinking pool of workers is limiting business hiring and could impede economic growth, yet it masks softness in the job market because a smaller labor force mechanically suppresses the unemployment rate. MarketWatch reports that the new leadership at BLS faces the challenge of producing more transparent and trusted data for an economy with about 160 million workers. Analysts say political pressure, reduced immigration and persistently low labor-force participation among women and teenagers complicate the task. Without reliable statistics, policymakers risk misreading labor-market conditions and enacting inappropriate responses.