BLS jobs report for January delayed by partial government shutdown
The January jobs report published by the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) will not be released as scheduled on Friday due to the partial federal government shutdown that began Saturday, multiple outlets reported Monday. The report will be issued once funding resumes.
The shutdown was triggered after Congress failed to pass funding bills that include money for the Labor Department, leaving the BLS and several other agencies closed after funding lapsed on Jan. 30.
Data collection for the jobs report is complete, The Wall Street Journal reported, but agency staff are unable to finalize and publish the report during the shutdown.
“The release will be rescheduled upon the resumption of government funding. Due to the partial federal government shutdown, the Bureau of Labor Statistics will suspend data collection, processing, and dissemination,” Emily Liddel, BLS associate commissioner for publications and special studies, told the outlets in a statement.
When HousingWire reached out to Liddel, it received an automated reply that said, “Thank you for your e-mail. Due to a lapse in funding, certain government activities have been suspended and I am unable to respond to your message at this time. This e-mail account will not be monitored. As soon as funding is restored, I will return your e-mail. Thank you for your patience.”
The BLS also did not immediately return HousingWire’s request for comment.
As a result, other reports like December’s Job Openings and Labor Turnover Survey and the Metropolitan Area Employment and Unemployment release will also be rescheduled, according to reporting from Bloomberg.
The delay adds to ongoing disruptions at the government’s statistical agencies, which are still recovering from a record six-week shutdown in the fall that caused widespread publication backlogs. Budget constraints and staffing shortages tied to a federal hiring freeze have further strained the BLS, which has been without a Senate-confirmed commissioner since last summer.
How disruptive the current shutdown becomes will depend on its length. A prolonged closure could delay upcoming reports on job openings and inflation. And it could complicate efforts by economists and policymakers, like the Federal Reserve, to track the economy.
The New York Times reported that the BLS’s failure to publish an unemployment rate during the October shutdown for the first time in the statistic’s 77-year history created data disruptions that are “expected to linger for months.”
Uncertainty can lead to more volatile moves in bond markets and mortgage rates. HousingWire’s Mortgage Rates Center showed that 30-year conforming loan rates averaged 6.27% on Monday. Mortgage News Daily reported 30-year fixed rates at 6.17% — up slightly from Friday due to weakness in the bond market tied to stronger-than-expected data in the manufacturing sector.
House Speaker Mike Johnson expressed confidence about Congress’s ability to end the partial government shutdown “by Tuesday,” he said Sunday in an interview on NBC’s “Meet the Press.”