The Department of Labor’s Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) will not release a full October jobs report after the 43-day federal government shutdown prevented officials from collecting critical data used to calculate the unemployment rate and other key labor market measures, the agency said in a Nov. 19 notice.
Instead of releasing an October edition of the bureau’s signature “Employment Situation” report, the agency will fold select October data, primarily payroll job creation figures, into the delayed November report, now rescheduled for release on Dec. 16.
The October household survey, which produces the unemployment rate, could not be conducted during the government shutdown, and the missed data collection cannot be made up, the BLS said….