Some economists are questioning the accuracy of recent U.S. inflation data鈥攁nd say it could have big economic implications (, subscription).

What鈥檚 going on: 鈥淭he Bureau of Labor Statistics, the office that publishes the inflation rate, told outside economists this week that a hiring freeze at the agency was forcing the survey to cut back on the number of businesses where it checks prices.鈥�

• In the April inflation report, government statisticians had to use a less precise price-change measurement method than they had used previously.

Why it鈥檚 important: The staffing shortage poses questions about the accuracy of recent and coming inflation reports, economists say.

The details: To determine the inflation rate, hundreds of government staffers known as enumerators disperse across U.S. cities, checking鈥攐ften at brick-and-mortar locations鈥攈ow much businesses are charging for goods and services.

• Statisticians pull that data into the consumer price index, which shows how the cost of living is changing for Americans.
• If enumerators can鈥檛 find specific prices, they make educated guesses based on close substitutes.
• But in April, with the hiring freeze on, they often had to 鈥渂ase their guesses on less comparable products or other regions of the country鈥攁 process called different-cell imputation鈥攎uch more often than usual, according to the BLS.鈥�

The effect: In the April inflation data, 29% of price guesses鈥攁 percentage twice as high as any month in the past five years鈥攚ere made using these less-accurate comparisons.

• One economist told the Journal: 鈥淲e don鈥檛 know if this is a big issue or a small issue, but we just know that directionally, it鈥檚 making things worse.鈥�