A government shutdown is delaying the jobs report — again
For now, the agency is forced to suspend data collection until Congress restores its funding which lapsed on January 30
The US Department of Labor headquarters in Washington, DC, US, which houses the Bureau of Labor Statistics. (Al Drago/Bloomberg via Getty Images)
The Bureau of Labor Statistics is delaying the release of the January jobs report due to a partial government shutdown that kicked off on Saturday, which cut off federal funding for the economic data agency.
Bloomberg first reported the development on Monday.
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Quartz confirmed it. Associate BLS commissioner Emily Liddel said in an emailed statement that BLS will "announce the rescheduled releases on the BLS website upon the resumption of funding." She did not provide further details on possible timing.
For the time being, the agency is forced to suspend data collection until Congress restores its funding, which lapsed on January 30. The BLS is housed within the Labor Department, one of six cabinet-level funding bills scheduled to receive a House vote on Monday evening. The tranche of government funding has already cleared the Senate.
During the 43-day government shutdown last year, the BLS was forced into a self-imposed data embargo that hit the agency's ability to collect jobless data, hiring, consumer prices and more. It delayed the September jobs report for months, and led to the cancellation of the October employment report.
The previous shutdown — the longest in U.S. history — cast a fog among economists and analysts attempting to gauge economic conditions in the midst of a tariff-induced bump in consumer prices, and raised concern that the Federal Reserve was setting interest rates without reliable data at hand. That outcome doesn't appear likely this time.