Another government shutdown, another delay in key economic data.
The Bureau of Labor Statistics will not release monthly jobs numbers on Friday as scheduled because of the partial government shutdown, said Emily Liddel, an associate commissioner for the bureau. The report, one of the most closely watched economic indicators each month, would have provided data on job growth, unemployment and wages in January, as well as annual revisions to employment estimates from 2024 and 2025.
The report “will be rescheduled upon the resumption of government funding,” Ms. Liddel said. A report on job openings and turnover in December, scheduled for release on Tuesday, will also be delayed.
The bureau suspended operations over the weekend when funding lapsed for parts of the federal government including its parent agency, the Labor Department.
Republican leaders in Congress have expressed confidence that the shutdown will end quickly, perhaps as early as Tuesday. But that would still leave little time for agency employees to finish processing and checking the job data in time for the scheduled Friday morning release — a process that is a scramble even during normal times.
The latest disruption comes as the Bureau of Labor Statistics was still struggling to get back on schedule after the monthlong lapse in federal funding last fall. That shutdown led to the cancellation or delay of dozens of economic indicators, including critical data on inflation and the labor market. The agency did not produce an unemployment rate in October for the first time in the 77-year history of the statistic, and distortions related to the pause in data collection are expected to linger for months.
Efforts to recover from the shutdown have been hampered by staff attrition, which left positions vacant at all levels of the agency. Even before the lapse in funding, the agency had been forced to cut back data collection in some areas because of insufficient staffing levels.
On Friday, President Trump announced that he would appoint Brett Matsumoto, a little-known government economist, to lead the Bureau of Labor Statistics. If confirmed by the Senate, Mr. Matsumoto would become the first permanent head of the agency since Mr. Trump fired the previous commissioner, Erika McEntarfer, last August.
Ben Casselman is the chief economics correspondent for The Times. He has reported on the economy for nearly 20 years.
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