The White House said Wednesday that it was unlikely the federal jobs report or the consumer price index reports that were due to be released in October would be published after the government shutdown ends.
“The Democrats may have permanently damaged the federal statistical system, with October CPI and jobs reports likely never being released, and all of that economic data released will be permanently impaired, leaving our policymakers at the Fed flying blind at a critical period,” White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt said.
The statement caught investors and economists by surprise, especially Leavitt’s suggestion that the September report could be shelved altogether. As recently as Monday, analysts at Morgan Stanley wrote that they expected the jobs report to be published within three business days of the government reopening.
Leavitt’s comment about the October CPI inflation report came as less of a surprise. Economists had already expected that it might not be released because federal workers who would have collected the data if the government had been open were not deployed after Oct. 1.
The most recent jobs report issued before the shutdown began was the August jobs report, which was released on Sept. 5.
It was unclear Wednesday whether Leavitt meant that the jobs report for the month of October that was scheduled to be released on Nov. 7 would not be released, or September’s report, which was due to be issued on Oct. 3.
The Bureau of Labor Statistics and the Department of Labor did not immediately respond to requests for comment on Leavitt’s comments.
Already, policymakers, market participants and economists expect a fog of data after the shutdown ends.
Opinions on how the lack of data could impact the Federal Reserve’s next monetary policy moves are mixed.
Some economists expect the Fed to make do with private data, such as the recently released private jobs report from ADP, which showed that employers added 42,000 jobs in October.
However, that slightly more optimistic private-sector jobs report came after a series of official jobs reports from the Bureau of Labor Statistics showed a shakier labor market.
The lack of government data “is a temporary state of affairs,” Fed Chair Jerome Powell said on Oct. 29.
“If you ask me, ‘Could it affect the December meeting?’ I’m not saying it’s going to, but … what do you do if you’re driving in the fog? You slow down,” he said.