Nationwide—This morning the Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) should have released the monthly Employment Situation Summary, a source of reliable, unbiased economic data that provides critical information to inform government and business decision-making. But this vital public report was blocked by the government shutdown that began after midnight on October 1st.
“The missing employment data is one more example of the ways the Trump administration’s government shutdown is forcing working families to shoulder costs of a manufactured crisis,” said Rebecca Dixon, president and CEO of the National Employment Law Project (NELP). “The Federal Reserve needs this data to determine interest rates that affect the rates on loans that families and businesses apply for. Employers use this information to make hiring and investment decisions. At NELP, we draw on BLS data to document the troubling rise in unemployment rates among Black women and track the disappearance of more than a million immigrant workers from the U.S. labor force – a direct result of the Trump administration’s cruel and economically destructive policies of mass detention and deportation. Without this important data, decision-makers will not be able to monitor these and other impacts of the Trump administration’s policy choices.”
On Wednesday, the payroll processing company ADP reported that private sector firms eliminated 32,000 jobs in September, marking the biggest private sector job loss tracked by ADP since March 2023. This report is an alarming indicator that the job market continues to weaken, but it cannot match the comprehensiveness and reliability of the public data that should have been released by the BLS today.
In addition to the loss of private sector jobs, tens of thousands of federal civil servants—including emergency management personnel, public health professionals, Social Security staff, and others who provide public goods and services that families rely on—saw their jobs eliminated by the Trump administration over the past few months. Now, the president and Office of Management and Budget Director Russell Vought are threatening additional mass firings and permanent cuts to public benefits. Public employee unions are suing to prevent these illegal firings.
While the nation’s official unemployment rate in September cannot be accurately determined without BLS data, mounting job losses highlight the need to strengthen the nation’s unemployment insurance system to support workers who lose their jobs. One critical reform is the Help FEDS (Federal Employees During a Shutdown) Act, introduced this week by Senator Angela Alsobrooks (D-MD) and Representative Sarah Elfreth (D-MD). The bill would ensure that federal employees who are required to work without pay during a government shutdown are eligible for unemployment benefits.
To support a broader range of unemployed workers, Congress must also enact The Unemployment Insurance Modernization and Recession Readiness Act, sponsored Senators Ron Wyden (D-OR) and Michael Bennet (D-CO) and Representative Don Beyer (D-VA). The bill sets nationwide standards for UI, mandating that states offer at least 26 weeks of unemployment benefits, raising benefit amounts to replace a greater share of workers’ prior earnings, and increasing coverage for part-time workers, temp workers, and workers whose earnings fluctuate over time. The bill also establishes a new, federally funded Jobseekers Allowance to support jobless workers who would not otherwise be covered by unemployment insurance and modernizes the Extended Benefits program that makes additional weeks of unemployment benefits available in times of high unemployment. State policymakers across the country should also act to improve their state unemployment insurance systems to better support workers and the economy.
