BLS

A lot of attention is paid to the headline unemployment rate. But the number of “underemployed” workers also offers clues about the health of the labor market.

A lot of crucial employment reports were expected to come out this week, but the partial shutdown has delayed that.

The data were collected in late November, during peak Black Friday discount season.

Overall, import prices remained unchanged. But that's before you add in tariffs.

The Bureau of Labor Statistics usually collects data in real time. So it may not be able to capture October prices or jobs data that was missed during the shutdown.

Due to the government shutdown, some pieces of the calculation puzzle for corporate earnings and outlook reports are missing.

“If we don’t know what the quality of the data will be. Well, that’s uncertainty. That’s risky,” says Columbia finance professor Laura Veldkamp.

In non-shutdown times, the BLS would be collecting employment data this week. Not doing that could have economic implications.

“Marketplace” host Kai Ryssdal spoke with Austan Goolsbee, president and CEO of the Federal Reserve Bank of Chicago, about Fed independence, what the government shutdown means for federal data, and inflation risks.

Employers have added an anemic 35,333 jobs per month since May.