Here’s where things stand on when the government will start releasing key economic reports
Job seekers wait to enter the SacJobs Careers job fair held in Sacramento, California, USA, on Thursday, November 13, 2025.
David Paul Morris | Bloomberg | Getty Images
As the U.S. government reopens for business, Wall Street’s attention will now turn to when critical data on employment, inflation and other economic indicators will be released.
Agencies under the Labor and Commerce ministries had not released revised schedules as of Friday morning, but updates are expected soon.
Common expectations are that the September employment report, whose data has already been collected but not yet processed, will be released next week, but this is not certain.
But uncertainty about the announcements from here on out casts another cloud over the increasingly contentious atmosphere of policymaking at the Federal Reserve, along with a tense climate among investors.
“The lack of timely official numbers has left markets and the Fed in a data fog, forcing them to seek alternative sources to gauge the underlying outlook,” Bank of America economist Shruti Mishra said in a note. he said. “Once the shutdown is resolved, all eyes will now be on the incoming data dump.”
The shutdown not only halted data collection and publication, but also complicated the picture as the data began to emerge.
For example, the October nonfarm payrolls count, which is expected to be conducted in early December, will likely not include the unemployment rate for that month. That’s because the report includes two surveys: a more objective look at “hard data” from businesses that use time cards and payroll numbers to assess how much work is being filled, and another that includes phone calls to households and written surveys asking how many people are working. The second survey is used to calculate the unemployment rate and is difficult to replicate.
Additionally, the October consumer price index report may never be compiled due to the data collection method. The Bureau of Labor Statistics uses in-person visits, so data cannot be collected retrospectively.
White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt warned about the missing data on Wednesday, but Mishra said he wasn’t expecting the CPI report even before that.
A. Description on BLS site Patience is requested during the data collection process as “it may take time to fully assess the situation and finalize revised publication dates.” Similarly, the Commerce Department’s Bureau of Economic Analysis, which publishes many key data points including the Fed’s inflation gauge, said it was working with the BLS and other agencies on data collection and “will release updated publication dates as soon as possible.”
political pressure
Meanwhile, some Democratic lawmakers are growing impatient and demanding answers from the administration about when the data will be released.
Citing the precedent of the October 2013 shutdown, when the BLS later released publication dates, the administration “may have been deliberately restricting the release of data.”
“The Trump Administration’s failure to release data or provide a clear schedule for the release of overdue data deprives businesses and policymakers of access to critical economic information,” the letter states. “It is critical that businesses, consumers, workers, Congress, and the Fed have access to timely and comprehensive economic data. The administration should release as much economic data as possible before the Fed meeting and resume normally scheduled data releases as soon as possible.”
White House officials did not respond to a request for comment.
I’m waiting for the Fed
Since Leavitt’s announcement on Wednesday, many officials have said the data would be coming, but there are still questions about which reports will be released and when. Labor Secretary Lori Chavez-DeRemer said data on payrolls and prices should be evaluated for accuracy before being released.
“I’m not sure when or if the BLS will release this, but I expect them to give us a schedule very quickly as to when those numbers might come out,” Chavez-DeRemer said on Fox Business Friday. Chavez added that the White House “called for the release of accurate data for November.”
Citigroup economist Andrew Hollenhorst said in a note Friday that he is optimistic the Fed will have September, October and November employment reports at its next policy meeting on Dec. 9-10. In September, Fed officials stated: While a rate cut is likely in December, some key officials have said recently that they suspect additional easing is needed.
Apart from reporting payrolls and CPI, the BLS also calculates data on import and export prices, job opportunities, producer prices, productivity and other metrics. The Ministry of Labor announces weekly unemployment benefit application figures.
Beyond BLS and Labor Department issues, the Commerce Department also handles many important data points.
These include personal income and spending, which includes the Fed’s key inflation forecast measure, the personal consumption expenditures price index, and gross domestic product. October PCE data is scheduled to be released on November 26. The Census Bureau deals with retail sales, the balance of trade, and the introduction of durable goods. Ministry officials did not respond to a request for comment.
