White House: October Jobs, CPI Data Likely Lost
Shutdown Freezes Key Economic Reports at Critical Time
Key Takeaways:
- The White House said October jobs and consumer price index reports likely will not be released because of the ongoing government shutdown.
- Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt warned the data gap could hinder Federal Reserve policymakers, as key economic surveys were halted.
- Economists said some lost data may never be recovered, leaving uncertainty until federal statistical agencies resume operations.
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The October jobs and consumer price index reports are unlikely to be released due to the government shutdown, White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt said Nov. 12.
“The Democrats may have permanently damaged the federal statistical system with October CPI and jobs reports likely never being released,” Leavitt told reporters at a news briefing.
Leavitt expressed concern that the lack of data is “leaving our policymakers at the Fed flying blind at a critical period.”
The Bureau of Labor Statistics and other key statistical agencies stopped producing and publishing economic data during the government shutdown. While economists say some statistics can be retroactively collected and disseminated, there’s a risk that others will be skipped entirely. Economists have flagged the consumer price index and unemployment rate for October as those most likely at risk of not coming out due to how the data underpinning them is collected.
“I’ve been told that some of the surveys were never actually completed, so we’ll never, perhaps, even know what happened in that month,” White House National Economic Director Kevin HassetttoldCNBC on Nov. 11. “We’re going to be staring a little bit in cloudy, cloudy weather for a while until we get the data agencies back up.”
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