The September 2025 jobs report was so bad that President Trump fired Erika McEntarfer, the head of the Bureau of Labor Statistics who was responsible for it. The report showed lackluster results that called his tariff maneuvers into question and embarrassed him.

U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics jobs growth as of August 2025.

Even though the October report was completed and verified before the Oct. 1 government shutdown, it still has not been released. The BLS with the government currently shut down has only one employee, but it would still be possible to release the report, which is a key economic indicator. One possible reason for not releasing it is that it would confirm the worrisome conclusions of the September report.

If the shutdown lasts past mid-October, the absence of the jobs report and cost-of-living figures from the Census Bureau will make the annual cost-of-living increase for Social Security recipients difficult to compute. This could affect millions of Social Security recipients.

Reactions to the suspension of the jobs report

The business press was concerned that the Federal Reserve would not have a key piece of data that it needs to set interest rates for the coming period. U.S. Senator Elizabeth Warren, the leading Democrat on the Senate Banking, Housing and Urban Affairs Committee, said: “Let’s be clear: the jobs data scheduled to come out this Friday [Oct. 3] has undoubtedly been collected, and the President must release it. Without it, the Federal Reserve will not have the full picture it needs to make decisions this month about interest rates that will impact every family across the country.” (cnn.com, Oct. 2, 2025)

Business leaders still want the Federal Reserve to cut interest rates, even though the economy appears to be tottering.

There are smaller, less comprehensive, private databases on job openings, hirings, payrolls — Indeed and ADP are two of the biggest — that produce some of the same information as the BLS, but the information they provide is nowhere near the same extensive quality and validity as the BLS report.

Businesses use the BLS report to direct their investments to produce the biggest profits. Since the BLS report breaks down its figures by locale and industry, workers and their organizations can use it to orient their struggles, their search for work. Instead of asking a colleague who is moving on to “write if you get work,” you can check the relevant entries in the BLS report.

Workers need an accurate and honest assessment of the state of our class in all its variety and complexity. The BLS with its five different measures of unemployment and data history can be a useful tool.