BLS QUESTIONS: Perdue Media Team Used Confidential Data To Spin Jobs Reports: Federal officials question legality of getting employment info before official release. “Since as early as January 2011, and perhaps before then, Gov. Bev Perdue’s press office has received access to confidential employment data from the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics hours if not days before its scheduled release, quite likely in violation of federal law. The governor’s staff used its early access to massage the monthly employment press release that reported jobs data to the public.”