Trump pressures Democrats over shutdown delays to key economic data
The article discusses how the White House is placing blame on democrats for the government shutdown, which is causing delays in the release of critical economic data. Key reports such as the September jobs report,consumer price index,producer price index,and the third-quarter GDP report will be postponed if the shutdown continues. These delays hinder timely economic decision-making by businesses, families, policymakers, and markets. The shutdown’s impact is notable amid signs of a weakening labor market, including declining job growth and job cuts reported by private firms. Despite the shutdown, stock markets have remained resilient, closing at record highs. The Federal Reserve faces challenges in setting monetary policy without access to up-to-date inflation and employment data. Meanwhile, President Trump and White House officials have framed the shutdown as an prospect to pursue federal layoffs aligned with their priorities, blaming Democrats for the impasse.
White House pressures Democrats over shutdown delays to key economic data
The White House is blaming Democrats as it highlights how the government shutdown will delay the release of “critical” economic data, which senior officials argue will hamper the private sector’s “decision-making” to end the year.
Staff at the Bureau of Labor Statistics, furloughed amid the shutdown fight on Capitol Hill, did not publish the September jobs report as scheduled on Friday at 8:30 a.m., marking one of the biggest economic repercussions of the shutdown as analysts remain laser-focused on any data that could provide further insight into a softening labor market.
Furthermore, senior White House officials confirmed to the Washington Examiner that the agency’s consumer price index and producer price index for September, both key inflation indicators, and the Bureau of Economic Analysis’s GDP report for the third quarter would not be published on their scheduled, respective release dates of Oct. 15, 16, and 30 should the government remain shut down at those times.
“Businesses, families, policymakers, and markets rely on timely and accurate public data for their decision-making, and it’s unfortunate that Democrats are gleefully throwing a wrench in our economy by shutting down the government to push freebies for illegal immigrants,” White House spokesman Kush Desai told the Washington Examiner when asked about the schedule.
The delayed release of economic data, which Trump claimed were being “rigged” against him earlier this year, may provide some cover for Republicans amid signs of the labor market sputtering.
The last BLS report to be published before the shutdown, Tuesday’s Job Openings and Labor Turnover Survey, found job openings increasing in August, with hiring simultaneously declining. In total, job openings jumped by 19,000 to 7.277 million by Aug. 31, slightly above expectations. Hiring fell by 114,000 to 5.126 million, and layoffs dropped to 1.725 million to round out the month.
Payroll processing firm ADP’s Thursday jobs report, which was expected to show modest increases, instead found private sector companies shedding 32,000 jobs in September, the biggest decrease in more than two years.
This comes as the government’s latest employment numbers also showed a weakening labor market.
The economy added just 22,000 jobs in August, and the unemployment rate rose to 4.3%. Also, the July jobs report revealed that some 258,000 fewer jobs were added in May and June than previously reported. And the president pulled his controversial nominee to run the BLS, former Heritage Foundation chief economist E.J. Antoni, earlier this week.
Markets, however, largely shrugged off the first two days of the shutdown, with the Dow Jones Industrial Average, the S&P 500, and the Nasdaq all closing at record highs on Thursday afternoon.
Trump’s own economic polling rating, a major strength of his on the 2024 campaign trail, has meanwhile slipped since he entered office, with a survey published Thursday by the Associated Press giving Trump a 39% approval rating on the issue.
Still, the Federal Reserve is closely watching all data to chart a course of action on monetary policy, a topic of keen interest to Trump despite the independent nature of the Fed. The Fed’s next meeting is set for later this month, and if the shutdown continues until then, Fed officials would be trying to set monetary policy without the inflation and job numbers.
“It’s not good that everybody would be flying blind,” Desmond Lachman, a senior fellow at the American Enterprise Institute, told the Washington Examiner.
Recently, the Fed announced it was cutting interest rates for the first time this year, in large part due to indications of a weakening job market. The Fed is trying to balance driving down inflation, which is too high, and preventing an economic slowdown or even a recession.
The White House has spent the latter half of this week seeking to saddle Democrats with blame for the shutdown.
On Thursday, President Donald Trump met with Office of Management and Budget Director Russ Vought to finalize some “thousands” of layoffs for federal workers at agencies deemed to run contrary to the president’s priorities, though, as of Friday morning, none of those firings have been announced. Both Vice President JD Vance and White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt suggested to reporters earlier this week that the layoffs would begin “imminently.”
TRUMP MARVELS AT ‘UNPRECEDENTED OPPORTUNITY’ FOR FEDERAL LAYOFFS ON DAY TWO OF SHUTDOWN
“I can’t believe the Radical Left Democrats gave me this unprecedented opportunity,” Trump wrote on Truth Social, linking the layoffs to Project 2025. “They are not stupid people, so maybe this is their way of wanting to, quietly and quickly, MAKE AMERICA GREAT AGAIN!”
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