Overview

• The Labor Department’s Sept. 26 contingency plan says the Bureau of Labor Statistics will suspend all program operations during a funding lapse, furloughing nearly all staff.
• If a shutdown begins at 12:01 a.m. ET Wednesday, the September jobs report due Friday would not be released, and October CPI and PPI reports would be delayed.
• The Commerce Department says Census monthly indicators would stop and the Bureau of Economic Analysis would cease most services, risking delays to construction, factory and trade data, with the initial Q3 GDP estimate at risk if the lapse persists.
• The plan states all active BLS data collection will halt and the agency’s website will go offline during the lapse, which could cause further scheduling changes once funding resumes.
• Markets and the Federal Reserve could lose key inputs before late‑October policy deliberations, with uncertainty over weekly jobless claims processing and a delayed CPI potentially affecting the Social Security COLA timing.