Jobs, CPI reports for October may never be released - White House

[Business People Searching Into The Distance]
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Two major economic reports on jobs and inflation for October may never be released even as the government shutdown ends, White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt has said.

"The Democrats may have permanently damaged the federal statistical system with October CPI and jobs reports likely never being released," Leavitt told reporters. "All of that economic data released will be permanently impaired, leaving our policymakers at the Fed flying blind at a critical period."

President Donald Trump late on Wednesday signed into law a federal spending package after it was cleared by Congress, ending the 43-day government shutdown - the longest in U.S. history.

The Bureau of Labor Statistics' employees were furloughed during the shutdown, because of which key price and employment data was not collected. The agency temporarily recalled some workers to release the September CPI report in time to set the Social Security cost-of-living-adjustment for 2026.

The BLS is expected to publish the September jobs report after the government reopens, since the relevant data had been collected before the shutdown began.

But releasing the reports for October is a bigger challenge, as retroactively collecting data could lead to inaccuracies due to recall bias.

"You can't just walk into a Costco in mid-November and find out what the price of a good was in October," Erika McEntarfer, the former BLS commissioner that Trump had fired, said [https://www.wsj.com/politics/policy/white-house-says-october-jobs-inflation-reports-unlikely-to-be-released-05e57e2b] (as quoted by _The Wall Street Journal_).

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