From the Agencies That Are Down for the Count; Missing Data Mean Delays After Shutdownel 768
That's the story you should have read today but won't -- because of the government shutdown that has closed virtually all of its key statistical agencies.</br></br>For the first time since it started releasing monthly employment figures in the early 1950s, the Labor Department yesterday was forced to delay its scheduled report on how many new jobs were created and how many Americans were unemployed in the previous month. And officials warned that the three-week hiatus could force a delay in the release of next month's employment report as well.</br></br>It's much the same story across the entire spectrum of government economic data, from durable goods orders to home sales to the monthly trade numbers.</br></br>And even if employees return on Monday to their computer terminals at the three big statistical agencies, it could be at least a month before everything is back to normal in the arcane world of chain-weighting and seasonal adjustments.</br></br>Labor Secretary Robert B. Reich said the shutdown will not only delay release of some statistics but somewhat reduce their reliability.