WASHINGTON (Reuters) -The office of the Labor Department’s inspector general said on Wednesday it was initiating a review of challenges the Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) faces in collecting and reporting U.S. economic data following recent large downward revisions to nonfarm payrolls and cuts to inflation data collection.

Assistant inspector general for audit, Laura Nicolosi, sent a letter to acting BLS commissioner William Wiatrowski informing him of the review. The announcement followed on the heels of news from the BLS on Tuesday that payrolls could have been overstated by 911,000 jobs in the 12 months through March.

“Our focus will be on the challenges and related mitigating strategies for (1) collecting PPI and CPI data, and (2) collecting and reporting, including revising, month

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