Government Shutdown and Its Impact on Employment Data
The Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) should be entering its "reference week" now, but due to the government shutdown, it is not collecting employment data.
In normal times, the BLS collects employment data during this week, but the shutdown may have economic implications. The September jobs report was not released, and now the October jobs report will also be affected.
The reference week, which includes the 12th of the month, is when the government surveys people about their employment status. According to Kate Bahn, chief economist and SVP at the Institute for Women's Policy Research,
“Since the government is shut down for this week that contains the 12th, that means they are not collecting data that would be in the jobs report,”and
“Whenever we finally do reopen the government, it’ll take a long time to get back in the retrospective data, and so it’ll be a lot of revisions.”
Author's summary: Government shutdown affects employment data collection.