A House panel plans to investigate allegations in a published report that workers in the Census Bureau fabricated data used to prepare monthly unemployment reports.

The probe comes in response to a report Monday in the New York Post that says census data was manipulated in advance of the 2012 presidential race.

Texas congressman Blake Farenthold says the allegation that unemployment data was manipulated is “extremely serious.” Farenthold chairs a House subcommittee that oversees the agency.

The Census Bureau says in a statement that it has no reason to believe there was any systematic manipulation of the data as described in the account. The bureau says it immediately reported the allegations to the inspector general when it learned about them.

White House spokesman Jay Carney calls the Post story “misleading.”

(AP)