White House: October jobs, inflation reports may never get published

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The federal jobs and inflation reports for October may never get calculated and released after a record-length government shutdown froze economic data collection, White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt said Wednesday.

In a briefing with reporters, Leavitt said the Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS), which was mothballed for most of the shutdown, may not be able to replace missing data that was set to come out during the standoff.

The shutdown, which began Oct. 1 and is expected to end as soon as Wednesday, prevented the BLS from releasing the September and October jobs reports.

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BLS was briefly reopened to assemble the September consumer price index (CPI) inflation report, which is essential to calculating the annual cost-of-living adjustment for federal benefits, on a delayed schedule. The October CPI report was set to be released Thursday, but Leavitt said Wednesday it may never come out at all.

“The Democrats may have permanently damaged the Federal Statistical system with October CPI and jobs reports likely never being released,” Leavitt said. “All of that economic data released will be permanently impaired, leaving our policymakers at the [Federal Reserve] flying blind at a critical period.”

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The data freeze came at a particularly bad time for Fed officials and other policymakers, given the rising concern among the American public about rising prices and fading job gains.

The Federal Reserve cut interest rates at its most recent policy meeting in October, but Fed Chair Jerome Powell warned that another December rate cut was “far from” a foregone conclusion. Powell said he and his Fed colleagues are divided both over the current state of the economy and whether its baseline interest rate range is appropriate for it.

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