1. United States
2. Mass.
3. Letter

The Consumer Price Index (CPI) isn’t just a measure of inflation, it directly impacts Social Security checks, mortgage rates, federal aid, business contracts, and worker pay. It’s foundational to understanding how the economy is working for everyday Americans. But now? It’s becoming far less accurate. Due to staffing shortages caused by the Trump administration, the Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) has significantly increased its reliance on “imputations”, statistical guesswork used to fill in gaps where real data is missing. In some major cities, they’ve stopped collecting data altogether. In April 2025, nearly 29% of price data was imputed. That’s almost one-third of our inflation data based on estimates, not actual numbers. This is very bad. We need accurate data. Pass legislation brining back the staffing to get real numbers again.