Despite delivering in past shutdowns, the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics said it was unable to provide the September jobs report because of the government shutdown
For the first time in more than a decade, Oregon and other states lack federal jobs data they rely on to understand the health of their economies and labor markets month-over-month.
Officials at the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics announced earlier this month that they would not produce the September jobs report, which was due Oct. 3, because of the government shutdown that began Oct. 1.
The agency uses two surveys each month to estimate the nation’s unemployment rate and how many jobs the economy created each month and shares state-specific data with partner agencies in each state. On Oct. 15, the Oregon Employment Department reported that there would be no September jobs data to share from the roughly 7,600 Oregon businesses that answer the federal survey each month.
Instead, officials at the federal labor statistics agency’s quarterly wage and employment report, which includes data providing employment trends and wages by industry through June. On Thursday, agency officials will share data from unemployment claims in the state that might offer a clearer picture of how labor markets are doing in Oregon.
Previous shutdowns haven’t stopped the federal labor statistics agency from issuing its reports, and only three shutdowns delayed them in the last several decades. During the October 2013 federal shutdown, September jobs data was delayed 18 days and released less than a week after the shutdown ended. During a shutdown that ran from Dec. 16, 1995, to Jan. 6, 1996, the December jobs report was delayed by two weeks, according to the D.C.-based nonprofit think tank Economic Policy Institute.
“Businesses want consistency and certainty from their government as they make long-term investment decisions. So do public policy makers, and without accurate, up-to-date data — data that we’ve always had available — we simply can’t quantitatively see how things are moving,” said Nathan Buehler, communications director at Business Oregon, the state’s economic development agency. “Missing a single month isn’t a catastrophe, but additional releases being missed would really start to erode public trust, and our ability to do any accurate economic analysis.”
Layoffs and hiring are low
Typically data is collected and prepared to share with officials at the Federal Reserve and the White House at least a day before being published, or in this case, by Oct. 2, meaning the agency was within a day or two of being ready to publish when the government shutdown began.
Officials at the Bureau of Labor Statistics did not respond to a request from the Capital Chronicle by Wednesday evening for more information about what specifically would have delayed the report.
The ongoing government shutdown risks data collection for the month of October, which should be happening now. The next Oregon jobs report was previously expected to be ready by Nov. 19, according to Gail Krumenauer, a state employment economist.
President Donald Trump in August fired Erika McEntarfer, commissioner of the Bureau of Labor Statistics, claiming she rigged the July jobs report to make him look bad. Figures in that report showed that the economy added 30,000 fewer jobs than anticipated in sectors heavily impacted by Trump’s tariff policies. The report also revised downward employment growth from May and June that had previously been thought to be higher.
Jobs reports and reports on private sector business growth going into September indicated sluggish job growth and persistent tariff-induced inflation.
The August jobs report, the most recent published, showed Oregon’s economy added nearly 7,000 non-farm jobs, mostly in health care, social assistance, hospitality and leisure and government. The largest job losses were in the wholesale trade sector.
Despite the unemployment rate remaining low in August, payrolls showed a big slowdown in hiring and a decline in labor growth in part due to lower immigration and workforce participation, Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell said at an Oct. 14 meeting of the National Association of Business Economists
“While official employment data for September are delayed, available evidence suggests that both layoffs and hiring remain low, and that both households’ perceptions of job availability and firms’ perceptions of hiring difficulty continue their downward trajectories,” Powell said.
The labor statistic bureau’s quarterly report shows that there was a decline in Oregon of 3,800 jobs between the second quarter of 2025 and the same quarter in 2024, or a decline of less than half a percentage point. The private sector lost more than 11,000 jobs during that period and manufacturing lost nearly 7,400 jobs, while more than 14,000 private health care and social assistance jobs were added, a nearly 5% increase from the previous year.
Between June 2024 and 2025, more than 7,000 government jobs were added. About 75% of those were in local governments, while 400 federal government jobs were lost.
During the first half of 2025, 29,000 Oregonians worked for the federal government, accounting for about 1.5% of all jobs in the state. Most of these employees work in rural counties. In Sherman County in north central Oregon, 15% of all jobs were federal government jobs, and in eastern and southern Oregon’s Grant, Harney and Lake counties, the federal government provides nearly 10% of all jobs.