October reports for key economic indicators, including the monthly jobs report from the recent U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, will likely not be released due to the government shutdown, White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt said during a press briefing Wednesday.
Normally, BLS reporting would be delayed but still eventually available in the wake of a government shutdown, as seen from 2013’s extended shutdown. This time, that economic data “will be permanently impaired,” Leavitt claimed, indicating it may not be released even retroactively.
The issue, according to advocate network Friends of BLS, is that data could not be physically recorded through the whole of October, and in many cases, that data — which relies on worker experiences during a set period — is not able to be collected retroactively.
As of publication, BLS has not stated when it will release data it was able to collect, such as the jobs data for September, normally released the first Friday of October.
What do we know right now?
Private-sector groups have since published their own data for October.
ADP stated that private employment went up by 42,000 jobs in October — what it called a “rebound”, but one based solely in a few industries. The company’s NER pulse published a week later, however, indicated that employers lost 11,250 jobs a week for the four weeks ending Oct. 25, “suggesting that the labor market struggled to produce jobs consistently during the second half of the month.”
Revelio Labs data also pointed to a slowdown, saying the U.S. economy lost approximately 9,000 jobs in October — driven in part by the government sector.
Other sources have noted the fragile state of the economy as experienced by employees and job seekers. The Class of 2025, according to a National Association of Colleges and Employers study, faces an unfriendly job market, receiving fewer job offers on average despite submitting more applications.
October layoffs were also the highest of any October in 22 years, analysis from Challenger, Gray & Christmas showed, up 175% from October 2024.