We’ve complained mildly about the quality of local employment statistics, but it looks like they’re going to get worse before they get better. Mark Liebman, senior economist at Fox Business, notes that the Bureau of Labor Statistics will stop reporting wage and hour data for local areas, and will eliminate payroll counts for 65 small metro areas. (Danville and Kankakee in Illinois are affected; none of the cities are in Missouri.)

Liebman’s also concerned that a planned update to the Consumer Price Index has been scrapped. Here, he buys into a conspiracy-like theory:

There could be an ulterior motive to the funding cuts, according to Dean Baker, an economist and co-director of the Center for Economic Policy Research, who suggested the updated CPI sample would show more rapid inflation. 

“If they thought it (the updated sample) would lead to less rapid inflation, they would probably be more likely to come up with the money,” Baker offered. 

The BLS’ official statement on its budget cuts is here. The president’s budget for 2009 would restore these cuts, but make others. One program on the chopping block is the American Time Use Survey, which has been providing fascinating insights since 2003. Without it, we might not know that men work 30 minutes longer on rainy days than on sunny ones.