Just Released: NY Fed’s Erica Groshen Becomes Commissioner of Labor Statistics

Jamie McAndrews

What could cap being a Liberty Street Economics blogger/editor? Apparently, for one of us, becoming a chief bean-counter. Yesterday, our colleague Erica L. Groshen was sworn in as the nation’s new Commissioner of Labor Statistics.

 
 
 
 
Erica, a vice president in the New York Fed’s Research and Statistics Group, was a founding editor of the Liberty Street Economics blog and the author of one of our first posts, an analysis of temporary layoffs during the 2007-09 recession. Working with her colleagues, she helped shape many of the features that our blog readers are now accustomed to seeing. During her twenty-five years in the Federal Reserve System (first in Cleveland and then in New York), she has held many leadership and research roles, including giving policy advice, publishing studies, editing our research series, heading departments, and reaching out to the region. Her research has focused on labor markets over the business cycle, regional economics, wage rigidity and dispersion, the male-female wage differential, service-sector employment, and the role of employers in labor market outcomes. She has also served on the advisory boards to the Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) and the Census Bureau.

 
 
 
 
As Commissioner of Labor Statistics—the head of the BLS—Erica will now lead efforts to collect, process, and disseminate data of the kind that she has used in her research. The BLS, an independent agency within the Department of Labor, is the principal federal agency responsible for measuring labor market activity, working conditions, and price changes in the economy.

 
 
 
 
Erica tells me that “while I’ll miss working on the blog with my colleagues at the NY Fed, I look forward to working with the excellent staff at the BLS to provide information to businesses, households, and policymakers so that they can make the best possible choices for themselves and help return the economy to full employment.”

 
 
 
 
I wish Erica the best as she continues her career of public service but switches her “public good” of choice from monetary policy to labor statistics.

Disclaimer
The views expressed in this post are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the position of the Federal Reserve Bank of New York or the Federal Reserve System. Any errors or omissions are the responsibility of the author.

Jamie McAndrews is director of research and an executive vice president of the New York Fed.