White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt said Wednesday that key inflation and jobs data for October will “likely never” be released due to the government shutdown.
Speaking at a news briefing, Leavitt sought to blame Democrats for the more than 40 day government shutdown, which she said “may have permanently damaged the federal statistical system with October [consumer price index] and jobs reports likely never being released.”
White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt said Wednesday that key inflation and jobs data for October will “likely never” be released due to the government shutdown.
Speaking at a news briefing, Leavitt sought to blame Democrats for the more than 40 day government shutdown, which she said “may have permanently damaged the federal statistical system with October [consumer price index] and jobs reports likely never being released.”
Leavitt added that the economic data that is released “will be permanently impaired.”
The last time a shutdown delayed a jobs report was in October 2013, when the report was delayed by a few weeks. This time, the Labor Department said it would not collect or release economic data during the shutdown. Without economic data, economists on Wall Street and at the Federal Reserve have struggled to get a read on the state of the economy, a complication at any time, but particularly as the Fed considers lowering interest rates further.
In the absence of official government data, private firms have stepped in to try to measure the state of the labor market. They have found that hiring seems to be slowing, while layoffs reached recession-like levels in October.
The Trump administration has had a hostile relationship with the Bureau of Labor Statistics, which oversees the monthly jobs reports and tracks inflation through the consumer price index. Earlier this year, President Donald Trump fired Erika McEntarfer, the commissioner of the Bureau of Labor Statistics, accusing her without evidence of releasing “faked” jobs numbers after several negative BLS jobs reports.
Trump’s initial nominee to replace her, E.J. Antoni, said publicly that he believed monthly jobs reports should be suspended. Antoni’s nomination was withdrawn amid concerns he didn’t have enough support in the Senate to be confirmed, and a successor to McEntarfer still has not been appointed.
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