The October jobs report may be gone forever

The first Friday of November came and went without the release of an October jobs report, a casualty of the month-long government shutdown. It may never get published after all.

The shutdown, now in its 37th day, has effectively closed the Bureau of Labor Statistics and kneecapped its ability to collect and produce timely data about the state of the U.S. economy. The agency last published the September inflation report since it was a critical ingredient in calculating next year's Social Security benefits.

But the vast majority of the BLS staff — numbering just more than 2,000 federal employees — are on furlough until Congress restores government funding. Until then, BLS is unable to gather data about consumer prices and employment. In this instance, it could mean the October employment report never gets assembled and published.

"The data was not collected, and it's hard to do it a month (or more) later," Heather Long, chief economist at Navy Federal Credit Union, wrote on social media.

The BLS did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

Still, alternatives in the private sector sought to fill in the blanks. Earlier this week, payroll processing firm ADP reported that employers added 42,000 jobs in October, a figure that falls in line with analyst projections of scarce hiring.

Corporate layoffs have picked up in recent weeks as Amazon, Target, Delta Airlines and more slashed jobs. Data from outplacement firm Challenger, Gray & Christmas showed 153,074 job cuts in October, the highest number since 2003.

As for the shutdown, early optimism among senators that a breakthrough in ending the impasse was near faded by Friday. Instead, Democrats were poised to reject a short-term Republican funding bill for the 15th time.

They remain unsatisfied with Republican policy concessions that don't meet their demands for an extension of Affordable Care Act subsidies which shrink monthly premiums for many Americans. With the shutdown dragging on, the Federal Aviation Administration proceeded to cut flight capacity at more than 40 U.S. airports as the ranks of unpaid air traffic controllers became thinner.

White House National Economic Council director Kevin Hassett said on Friday that the shutdown had prompted the Trump administration to slash its economic growth projections for the fourth quarter by half to 2%.

"The impact on the economy of the shutdown is far worse than we expected because it's gone on for so long," Hassett told Fox Business host Maria Bartiromo.