Official US data credibility is questioned, private organizations rise to provide alternative solutions.

Private companies in the United States are seizing the opportunity of doubts about federal economic data and are vigorously developing alternative products to US government statistics. One platform is now offering data to the public for free - a significant shift from the previous profit-driven model in the field. Other companies are increasing investment in their own statistical data and improving their release frequency: with the rapid changes in government policies and the overall economic situation, the demand for real-time information from clients is continuously increasing. Although government data is still considered the "gold standard" because of its wide coverage and ability to comprehensively measure the performance of the world's largest economy, economists and traders have significantly increased their acceptance of private indicators. In addition, the sudden dismissal of the director of the Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) by US President Donald Trump, an agency traditionally non-partisan responsible for compiling key inflation and labor market data, and the successor nominated with perceived partisan tendencies have made some investors wary of official data. "The more data, the better." Economist Stephen Juneau of Bank of America said, "Private data providers, including viewpoints drawn from our bank's internal data, enrich this basket of alternative indicators. We can use these indicators to validate or corroborate the signals conveyed by official statistics, or to complement them." For a long time, economists, the Federal Reserve, and other policymakers have incorporated data from private institutions (such as the ADP Research Institute, Challenger consulting company, University of Michigan, etc.) to assess the health of the economy; many Wall Street banks also use their own credit card data to track consumer spending. Bloomberg LP also provides public, private, and exclusive economic data. In a politically divided country like the United States, the risk of federal data shutdowns leading to the cessation of federal data releases is relatively frequent. At such times, third-party data providers often receive more attention. Currently, several start-up companies are trying to enter this field more stably. Labor analytics company Revelio Labs previously sold employment market data to hedge funds and private equity companies and now plans to provide macro-level statistical data to everyone for free in light of Trump's dismissal of the BLS director - because such data should be considered a "public good." The company originally could provide employment changes, job vacancies, and salary data at the enterprise and occupational levels. Currently, Revelio Labs is aggregating more than 150 million individual career profile data extracted from platforms such as LinkedIn, Jobcase, to the national level. The company claims that this data covers 85% of the employed population in the US, while the coverage rate of the BLS enterprise survey is estimated at only 27%. Lisa Simon, Chief Economist at Revelio Labs, said, "Ideally, we want to exert some competitive pressure on the BLS to perhaps update statistical methods or cooperate with us and other external data providers on some indicators." The company's first batch of free macro data will be released next week, just before the BLS releases the employment report for August. The July employment report sparked the latest controversy for the BLS: significant downward revisions prompted Trump to dismiss Erika McEntarfer and falsely accuse her of manipulating data, damaging the image of the Republican Party. In addition, official data has repeatedly experienced publication errors, coupled with a continuous decline in survey response rates, exacerbating concerns about the reliability of the BLS and its data from external sources. More widespread trust concerns OpenBrand sells inflation data to manufacturers, retailers, and other users, and its Chief Economist, Ralph McLaughlin, said that the Trump administration's unpredictable tariff policies have increased customer demand - companies want real-time insight into competitors' price increases or discount levels. OpenBrand's data covers nearly 200,000 products and launched a new product in August that can "track price changes in real-time rather than one month lag." Some platforms, including Motio Research, are still exploring profit models. The startup with only three employees uses data from the Census Bureau to generate household income analysis data and plans to sell about 150 data series to financial institutions and research institutions. Co-founder Matas Scaglione said, "We still hope to provide some data to the public for free as much as possible because I believe that this type of data has the attributes of a public good, and we are working to maintain this attribute. through the new data series, we will try to commercialize some data while opening access to the other part for free." Claudia Sahm, Chief Economist of New Century Advisors, who previously worked at the Federal Reserve, disagreed with the view that "private data can become public goods." In a recent Bloomberg Opinion column, she pointed out that government statistical work lacks profit motives, but companies ultimately aim for profit and will stop data compilation if poorly managed. Sahm said in an interview, "These are private companies, they have operating costs, shareholder demands, and need to pay employee salaries. The government does not profit from it, and statistical methods have high transparency, so this is different from competing with other providers." Ultimately, many private data providers, including Revelio Labs and OpenBrand, either calibrate their data based on official data or use it as a starting point for data compilation. Despite concerns about the reliability of official statistics, they are still considered the "gold standard" due to their rigor, traditional authority, and independence. Scaglione said, "I believe our work is a supplement to the work of the Census Bureau and the BLS, and we are trying to provide more value using public data."