Companies, consumers, policymakers and investors across the US are \u201cflying blind\u201d at a crucial time for the world\u2019s largest economy, a former top official has warned, after Friday\u2019s closely-watched jobs report was not published as a result of the federal government shutdown.<\/p>\n
The data for the release have already been collected, according to two former heads of the Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS). But the Trump administration<\/a> has so far defied calls to publish the report.<\/p>\n Employment growth has been slowing for months<\/a>. Donald Trump fired the BLS commissioner<\/a> in August, claiming without evidence that official data had been \u201cfaked\u201d, as the labor market softened.<\/p>\n Erica Groshen, who served as BLS commissioner during the Obama administration, said: \u201cWithout today\u2019s jobs report and next week\u2019s scheduled inflation release (the data for which are already collected), the Federal Reserve, US treasury, financial markets, businesses and households will be flying blind.<\/p>\n \u201cThey will be less certain of current conditions at what may or may not be the beginning of a recession \u2013 precisely when their decisions are most consequential.\u201d<\/p>\n Earlier this week William Beach, who led the BLS for four years under Trump and Joe Biden<\/a>, also said the jobs data for September \u201chave been completely collected and processed\u201d by the BLS. \u201cThe jobs report is likely written in final draft,\u201d he wrote<\/a>.<\/p>\n According to a private jobs report from the payroll processing company ADP, US firms lost 32,000 jobs <\/a>in the month of September, contrary to expectations from Wall Street of job growth of 45,000 for the month. ADP also revised<\/a> its August job numbers from a growth of 54,000 jobs to a loss of 3,000 jobs.<\/p>\n skip past newsletter promotion<\/a><\/p>\n Sign up to This Week in Trumpland<\/p>\n A deep dive into the policies, controversies and oddities surrounding the Trump administration<\/p>\n Privacy Notice: <\/strong>Newsletters may contain information about charities, online ads, and content funded by outside parties. If you do not have an account, we will create a guest account for you on theguardian.com<\/a> to send you this newsletter. You can complete full registration at any time. For more information about how we use your data see our Privacy Policy<\/a>. We use Google reCaptcha to protect our website and the Google Privacy Policy<\/a> and Terms of Service<\/a> apply.<\/p>\n after newsletter promotion<\/p>\n Paul Schroeder, executive director of the Council of Professional Associations on Federal Statistics said: \u201cThe monthly jobs report is a key economic indicator which is particularly critical at this moment as economists are trying to get a handle on how much the US labor market has cooled. Since the release is delayed, a big piece of the labor market puzzle is missing.\u201d<\/p>\n The Democratic senator Elizabeth Warren has called on the Trump administration<\/a> to release the jobs report and upcoming inflation data despite the shutdown. \u201cThe jobs data scheduled to come out this Friday has undoubtedly been collected and the President must release it,\u201d she said. \u201cWithout 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.<\/p>\n \u201cDonald Trump has the power to make sure the federal government can continue producing and releasing this critical information on Friday and beyond during his shutdown.\u201d<\/p>\n Under the shutdown, the BLS\u2019s contingency plan calls for furloughing all employees but the acting commissioner at the agency.<\/p>\n \u201cIn the event of a federal government shutdown, the Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) will suspend data collection, processing, and dissemination,\u201d an agency spokesperson said in an email. \u201cOnce funding is restored, BLS will resume normal operations and notify the public of any changes to the news release schedule on the BLS release calendar<\/a>.\u201d<\/p>\n