The US Department of Labor headquarters building is seen at dusk on June 21, 2024 in Washington, DC.
J. David Ake | Getty Images News | Getty Images
The Bureau of Labor Statistics will not be releasing the January jobs report as scheduled Friday due to the government shutdown, a department spokesman confirmed Monday.
“The Employment Situation release for January 2026 will not be released as scheduled on Friday, February 6, 2026. The release will be rescheduled upon the resumption of government funding,” Emily Liddel, associate commissioner of the BLS, said in a statement.
Following last year’s record shutdown that stretched into early November, the bureau also was forced to delay a number of its routine releases and was just catching up from that incident. The BLS also releases the consumer price index, import and export data and multiple other labor- and consumer-related data pieces.
It was not known if the Commerce Department also would face delays in its reporting due to the impasse in Washington.
The decision comes ahead of a busy week for economic data that would have culminated with the nonfarm payrolls release, also known as the unemployment situation. The report provides a count of how many hires businesses report, which provides the headline nonfarm payrolls count, as well as a household count of how many people report holding jobs, which is used to tabulate the unemployment rate.
Markets had been expecting the report to show an increase of 55,000 jobs and the unemployment rate to hold steady at 4.4%.
The government closed its doors again Saturday after Congress was unable to come up with a spending plan by the deadline. One of the sticking points in the bill was funding for the Department of Homeland Security following unrest over its efforts to stem illegal immigration.
House Speaker Mike Johnson (R-La.) said over the weekend that he expects the impasse could be resolved by Tuesday.
