CoinWorld reports that during most of the past year, the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics faced staffing shortages due to federal government hiring freezes, which affected the collection of price data and forced the agency to rely more on lower-accuracy estimation methods for some data imputation. In February this year, in cases where estimation was necessary, the BLS used the so-called "different-cell imputation" method in 40% of cases, compared to only 9% a year earlier. However, the situation may be easing: the BLS has currently posted job openings on its website for positions responsible for collecting price data in multiple regions across the country.