The White House said on Wednesday that the country’s system for collecting and releasing important economic data may have suffered long-term harm because of the long government shutdown.
Officials explained that the key economic reports for October — including jobs numbers and inflation data — might not be released at all. This is causing serious concern on Wall Street, especially as the shutdown has now gone on for more than 40 days, according to CNBC.
White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt told reporters that even though the historic standoff is finally close to being resolved, it may be too late to recover the missing information.
She said Democrats may have caused permanent damage to the federal statistical system by allowing the shutdown to go on for so long. According to her, the October jobs report and the inflation report (known as the CPI) will likely never be published. She added that without this information, key decision-makers at the Federal Reserve will have to make major economic choices “blind,” without the usual data to guide them.
The missing information comes from the Labor Department’s Bureau of Labor Statistics and normally includes the monthly job count, inflation measurements, and other indicators. The delay also means that other important reports — such as retail sales, trade numbers, consumer spending, and income levels — are all pushed back as well.
This creates uncertainty for investors, businesses, and government leaders who rely on these numbers to understand what is happening in the economy.
