Budget cuts have forced the Bureau of Labor Statistics, which publishes federal, regional and local jobs and consumer data, to change its ways.
The bureau’s fiscal 2008 budget was chopped five percent to $544 million. The resulting changes include scrapping an expanded report on high-risk occupations and incidents, such as truck driving and falls. And BLS will defer planned research to address a possible undercount of workplace injuries and illnesss, “leaving questions about the completeness of these statistics unresolved,” the bureau said in a statement.
And the agency will embrace the Web more and snail mail less. BLS will no longer mail its news releases. Instead the bureau will rely on the Internet to get the word out.
It will continue to post its monthy and quarterly releases on its Website and offer a free email subscription.
For more on the budget cuts’ effects go to:
http://www.bls.gov/bls/budgetimpact.htm
--Carrie Mason-Draffen