What Key Government Data Are We Missing?

Writing FER Fortnightly Economic Report is more challenging this week in part because we are missing a number of key government reports. Among them are the monthly report on U.S. employment, the Producer Price Index and the Consumer Price Index.

Nearly all of the statisticians at the Dept. of Commerce, the Bureau of Labor Statistics, the Census Bureau and the Dept. of Labor are furloughed as part of the federal government shutdown.

On the labor front, economists deprived of the federal Employment Report were left parsing data from weekly jobless claims (which are reported by the states and thus were released Oct. 3) and data from ADP on private-sector hiring. The four-week moving average for jobless claims fell to 305,000 from 329,000 the week before. And ADP says private-sector employment increased by 166,000, with most of the gains in service-sector jobs. The numbers are in line with recent reports.