Trump admin says public may never see recent economic data while blaming it on shutdown

Recently, US President Donald Trump signed an order that marked the end of the longest government shutdown in history, lasting more than 40 days. Usually, the Labor Department’s Bureau of Labor Statistics releases crucial employment reports on the first Friday of every month. However, that may never happen for the month before the shutdown.

The government has held out on releasing the September data. It also did not release the data for October, as the shutdown was still ongoing during the first Friday of November. As per a report in MSNBC, it seems like a big part of that unreleased data will be kept under wraps for good. The government is holding the shutdown responsible for this inconvenience.

The announcement was made by the White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt, who said that inflation and employment data for October will likely never be made public. It was later confirmed that the September data will be released, however. The Press Secretary also pinned the blame for the anomaly on the Democrats, who she believed were the reason behind the shutdown that might have crippled the federal statistical system. The shutdown was lifted after a few Democrats went against their party’s stand in Congress and voted with the ruling Republicans.

“The Democrats may have permanently damaged the federal statistical system, with October CPI and jobs reports likely never being released, and all of that economic data released will be permanently impaired, leaving our policymakers at the Fed flying blind at a critical period,” Leavitt said as per a report in NBC News. However, not releasing employment data for a month might be beneficial to the Trump administration.

There have been shutdowns in the past, but never before have a month’s inflation and employment statistics been withheld. It is, however, important to note that no previous shutdown has lasted as long as this one. In addition to that, reports suggest that the private sector has deteriorated in terms of employment in September and October. Therefore, not releasing the data for one of those months would save the Trump administration from having to answer some tough questions.

Another reason why the government might not be willing to release this crucial data is that the second term of the Trump administration has reportedly seen job growth slow down so much that it could be compared to the situation during the Great Recession. Either way, no matter how the two sides try to spin it, the employment data for October will likely never see the light of day.

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