Since Trump deliberately put all the Labor Department’s data people on furlough during the shutdown, you’d think the Bezos Post could figure out he doesn’t want people to have the labor statistics! Gee, I wonder why? Via Bezos Post:
The absence of the Labor Department’s monthly jobs report, which was scheduled to be released this morning, is the first casualty in what is likely to be a string of delayed or missed economic data.
The timing could hardly be worse. Policymakers have been watching closely for signs that a cooling job market, rising unemployment and worsening inflation could be weighing on the economy. The September jobs report was expected to provide a much-anticipated snapshot of the U.S. labor market, after a summer of rapid cooling.
“It’s a bad time to be missing data,” said Erica Groshen, an economist at Cornell University who led the Bureau of Labor Statistics during the 2013 shutdown. “We are flying blind right as the economy could be turning.”
That is what distinguishes this shutdown from previous ones, experts say. The last time the jobs report was delayed, by a couple of weeks in October 2013, the economy was on a clear path, with rising gross domestic product and falling unemployment.
This time around, the U.S. economy appears to be at a crossroads. Although growth has been strong so far this year, hiring has slowed significantly in recent months, raising concerns that further cooling could quickly spell trouble for the broader economy. Data from payrolls processor ADP on Thursday showed that employment at private companies dropped by 32,000 in September, the largest decline in more than two years. Another report, from employment firm Challenger Gray & Christmas, showed that companies’ hiring plans are at their lowest level since 2009.
“The question right now is: Why is the labor market weak when everything else is good?” said Torsten Slok, chief economist at Apollo Global Management. “Now not only do we not have data, we don’t have data in a situation where there are some very significant signals coming from the labor market.”
People are putting groceries on their credit cards. You think that’s a good sign, Torsten, old pal? Maybe all is not as Trump says in MAGA world!