The next jobs report will be postponed if there's a government shutdown

The September jobs report scheduled to be published on Oct. 3 will be postponed in the event of a government shutdown, the Department of Labor said in an announcement outlining its latest shutdown plan. The same applies for the monthly inflation data set for Oct. 15 release if Congress hasn't clinched a funding agreement by then.

The Bureau of Labor Statistics, the agency tasked with releasing monthly employment and inflation statistics, will suspend all operations during a shutdown. It raises the risk of a fog setting in over U.S. economic conditions in the short-term, as tariffs crimp employment growth and corporate investment.

The BLS has 2,055 full-time employees and all but one will be furloughed if the government closes its doors. Only the BLS commissioner is exempt from mass furloughs, given the position's status as a presidential appointee.

In this case, that will be acting BLS chief William Wiatrowski, who took the top agency position on interim basis after Trump fired its former chief Erika McEntarfer in August.

Trump was unhappy over standard revisions to federal employment data that showed 250,000 fewer jobs added than originally estimated. The president claimed without evidence that BLS had "rigged" the statistics to undercut his administration.

The BLS is an embattled agency. About one-third of its leadership slots are vacant, according to its website last updated in early August. Two BLS advisory panels that delivered statistical guidance on the monthly jobs reports were eliminated in March through Trump's executive orders.

Republicans are prodding Democrats to accept a clean, short-term spending patch that keeps the government funded through Nov. 21. Democrats, though, are balking at supplying their votes without an extension of Affordable Care Act insurance subsidies that expire at the end of the year. A high-stakes meeting between Trump and Congressional leaders to avoid a shutdown is set for Monday afternoon.

The investment bank Piper Sandler said in a weekly note on Monday that a government shutdown could delay the release of payroll and inflation data by 10 days.