Erica Lynn Groshen (born August 6, 1954) is the former Commissioner of Labor Statistics and head of the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS), the independent, principal fact-finding agency for the U.S. government in the broad fields of labor economics and statistics,

inflation In economics, inflation is an increase in the general price level of goods and services in an economy. When the general price level rises, each unit of currency buys fewer goods and services; consequently, inflation corresponds to a reduct ...

, and

productivity Productivity is the efficiency of production of goods or services expressed by some measure. Measurements of productivity are often expressed as a ratio of an aggregate output to a single input or an aggregate input used in a production proces ...

. BLS is part of the

U.S. Department of Labor The United States Department of Labor (DOL) is one of the United States federal executive departments, executive departments of the federal government of the United States, U.S. federal government. It is responsible for the administration of fede ...

Education

Groshen received a bachelor's of science degree in economics and mathematics from the

University of Wisconsin-Madison A university () is an institution of higher (or tertiary) education and research which awards academic degrees in several academic disciplines. Universities typically offer both undergraduate and postgraduate programs. In the United States, th ...

and a Ph.D. in economics from

Harvard University Harvard University is a private Ivy League research university in Cambridge, Massachusetts. Founded in 1636 as Harvard College and named for its first benefactor, the Puritan clergyman John Harvard, it is the oldest institution of high ...

Career

Groshen was nominated for the BLS post in February, 2012, and confirmed unanimously by the U.S. Senate in January, 2013. Her term ended on January 27, 2017. Previously, Groshen served as a vice president of the Federal Reserve Bank of New York.Erica Groshen
at Federal Reserve Bank of New York site Groshen's research focuses on jobless recoveries, regional labor markets, wage rigidity and dispersion, the male-female wage differential, service-sector employment, and the role of employers in labor market outcomes. She co-authored the book How New is the “New Employment Contract”? from the W.E. Upjohn Institute Press and co-edited Structural Changes in U.S. Labor Markets: Causes and Consequences, from M.E. Sharpe, Inc. She has published numerous papers in academic and Federal Reserve journals and co-led the sixteen-country International Wage Flexibility Project. She was a founding editor of the New York Fed's Liberty Street Economics Blog and also an editor of the Current Issues in Economic and Finance and Economic Policy Review publication series. She has served as a member of the BLS Data Users’ Advisory Committee and the Census Bureau's 2010 Census Advisory Committee and also as an American Economic Association representative to the Census Advisory Committee of Professional Associations. She was also a Research Fellow of the

IZA Institute of Labor Economics The IZA - Institute of Labor Economics (german: Forschungsinstitut zur Zukunft der Arbeit), until 2016 referred to as the Institute of the Study of Labor (IZA), is a private, independent economic research institute and academic network focused o ...

, a private independent economic research institute focused on the analysis of global labor markets and served on the Board of Reviewers for the journal ''Industrial Relations'' from 1991 until 2013. From 2006 to 2010, Groshen was the Director of Regional Affairs at the New York Fed, leading its efforts to connect with the business, education, and policy communities in the 2nd Federal Reserve District. She helped lead initiatives to mitigate the impact of mortgage foreclosures on the region and the Federal Reserve System's Mortgage Outreach and Research Efforts. On behalf of the New York Fed, she initiated the effort to form the consortium of thirteen research institutions that created the New York Census Research Data Center at Baruch College in 2006. In 1999–2000, Groshen visited the Bank for International Settlements in Basel Switzerland. Prior to that, she served as head of domestic research and of international research in the Research Group at the New York Fed. Before joining the New York Fed in 1994, Groshen was a visiting assistant professor of economics at

Barnard College Barnard College of Columbia University is a private women's liberal arts college in the borough of Manhattan in New York City. It was founded in 1889 by a group of women led by young student activist Annie Nathan Meyer, who petitioned Columbia ...

at Columbia University and an economist at the

Federal Reserve Bank of Cleveland The Federal Reserve Bank of Cleveland is the Cleveland-based headquarters of the U.S. Federal Reserve System's Fourth District. The district is composed of Ohio, western Pennsylvania, eastern Kentucky, and the northern panhandle of West Virginia ...

, where she focused on employment and regional issues. After her term as Commissioner of Labor Statistics, Groshen joined the Cornell University ILR School as a Senior Economics Advisor and W.E. Upjohn Institute as a research fellow. She currently serves on the Federal Economic Statistics Advisory Committee and the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering and Medicine's Committee on National Statistics, and as Chair of the

STARs A star is an astronomical object comprising a luminous spheroid of plasma held together by its gravity. The nearest star to Earth is the Sun. Many other stars are visible to the naked eye at night, but their immense distances from Earth ma ...

Insights Advisory Panel.

Recognition

Groshen was elected as a

Fellow of the American Statistical Association Like many other academic professional societies, the American Statistical Association (ASA) uses the title of Fellow of the American Statistical Association as its highest honorary grade of membership. The number of new fellows per year is limited ...

in 2020. In 2017, the Labor and Employment Relations Association gave her their Susan C. Eaton Outstanding Scholar-Practitioner Award "in recognition of outstanding research, teaching, and practice emphasizing the value of bringing together the academic and practitioner communities."

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Groshen, Erica 1954 births 21st-century American economists American civil servants American women economists Bureau of Labor Statistics Central bankers Fellows of the American Statistical Association Harvard Graduate School of Arts and Sciences alumni Living people Place of birth missing (living people) University of Wisconsin–Madison College of Letters and Science alumni Obama administration personnel Trump administration personnel 21st-century American women