It’s a very bad time not to have good data about the economy. That’s nonetheless the situation policymakers find themselves in as the shutdown chugs on.
The Bureau of Labor Statistics is just one of the many federal agencies to pause the release of major reports since the government shuttered. We’ve already missed one jobs datapoint as of this morning. The BLS didn’t publish weekly unemployment claims data, which has been ticking up. We’re going to miss Friday’s “employment situation” too, which is where the U.S. unemployment rate is publicized.
In some ways, this moment is a dress rehearsal for a pitch (advanced by the Trump administration’s prior nominee to lead the BLS) to pause jobs reports altogether until their accuracy could be improved. That would leave economists – and more importantly, investors – with only private jobs figures indefinitely. And if this week is any indication, that’s a rough place to be.
