U.S. September NFP report to be released on Tuesday: Labor Department
(Reuters) – A wave of U.S. economic data is set to hit financial markets starting next week after a last-minute budget deal re-opened the federal government on Thursday.
The Labor Department said it would release its employment report for September on Tuesday as it provided a fresh schedule for some data that had been delayed by the 16-day partial government shutdown.
The report originally was scheduled for release on October 4.
The payrolls tally, which includes the nation’s unemployment rate, regularly sets the tone for global financial markets keen for a reading on the health of the world’s largest economy.
Among other data the department rescheduled was the consumer price index for September, which will now be released on October 30, and the producer price index for September, now due on October 29.
The Commerce Department’s Bureau of Economic Analysis, which compiles the gross domestic product and retail sales reports, among others, will publish a revised data calendar as soon as possible, a spokeswoman said.
The shutdown delayed the release of about a dozen economic reports. Six other reports covering the month of September that had been scheduled for release over the next couple of weeks will probably be delayed as well.
October’s employment report, previously due for release on November 1, was pushed back to the following week, the Labor Department said.
While delays in publishing the data likely inconvenienced financial market players, there is a silver lining, especially for retail sales and nonfarm payrolls data for which respondents do not always complete the government surveys on time.
“The releases may even be of better quality,” said Laura Rosner, a U.S. economist at BNP Paribas in New York, noting that delays in releasing the retail sales report during a government shutdown in 1995 and 1996 had allowed for the inclusion of late responses from retailers.
“The fact that it was delayed meant that more late responses were able to be included, so the data was more complete than had it been published earlier in the month.”
Keith Hall, a former commissioner of the Bureau of Labor Statistics, the Labor Department’s main statistical arm, said only about 70 percent of companies surveyed by the BLS for the nonfarm payrolls count submit their responses on time.
