Under normal circumstances, on the first Friday of the month, the Labor Department’s Bureau of Labor Statistics releases closely watched employment reports that are scrutinized by observers around the world. Lately, however, the circumstances have been anything but normal.
The recent government shutdown began on Oct. 1, which meant the BLS was unable to release job totals from September the morning of Friday, Oct. 3. Similarly, while job numbers from October were supposed to reach the public last week, the public remained in the dark for the same reason.
Now that the longest shutdown in American history is over, is it finally time to turn on the lights, fill in the gaps, and learn about the state of the U.S. job market in the late summer and early fall? Evidently, no. The Washington Post reported:
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.’
She added that, as far as the White House is concerned, the recent economic data that is released will have been “permanently impaired” by the shutdown.
White House officials soon issued a clarification: Employment data from September, which was collected before the shutdown began, will be released, but the totals from October will probably never see the light of day.
For now, let’s not dwell on the irony of Team Trump complaining about “damaging” and “impairing” jobs data, given the president’s decision to fire a BLS commissioner as part of an absurd tantrum. Rather, let’s unpack the broader relevance of Leavitt’s announcement.
First, there have been other lengthy shutdowns, but no other administration has ever before decided to simply scrap a monthly jobs report.
Second, the Trump White House might find it convenient to blame the shutdown for the elusive data, but it’s easier to believe a political motivation: Private-sector data suggests the weak job market continued to deteriorate in September and October, despite the president’s misguided recent boasts and “record” job growth.
Finally, according to the Republican administration’s own data, job growth during the first year of Trump’s second term has slowed to levels unseen since the Great Recession. Keeping recent data under wraps might temporarily spare the White House from another round of embarrassing headlines, but there’s plenty of similarly discouraging news on the horizon about the president’s failing economic agenda.
