Latest Breaking News

"There will likely NOT be an inflation release next month for the first time in history," a White House account posted on Oct. 24, saying it was because "surveyors cannot deploy to the field — depriving us of critical data." ((the all-caps "NOT" is in the original, but the highlighting of the date is mine -progree))

On the issue of data collection, Goldman’s economists said they expect the shutdown to have “a limited impact” on the quality of jobs data.

As for timing, Citigroup economists on Wednesday speculated that the September nonfarm payrolls report could be released as early as Friday but more likely in the early part of next week. They said it could take until early December to put together the October count.

Jobs report data should be easy to collect belatedly because it involves asking business for hard numbers, according to Jeffrey Roach, chief economist at LPL Financial. In fact, he said the BLS could likely get multiple months’ worth of data during one collection period if needed. ((speaking of the headline non-farm payroll jobs numbers which comes from the Establishment Survey of businesses -progree))

But he said it’s harder to get information from everyday people because it requires asking them about their willingness to work during a period that has already passed. ((speaking of the separate Household Survey, which is the basis of the headline unemployment rate and labor force and labor force participation rate among many other metrics --progree))

“It’s just the more nuanced qualitative surveys that cannot be replicated,” Roach said. “The water has gone under that bridge already.”