‘Cloudy Weather’: Hassett Says Some Economic Data Was Never Collected During Shutdown

Some essential U.S. economic data used to calculate job growth, GDP, inflation and other critical information used by policymakers may never be released because of the extended government shutdown, White House National Economic Council Director Kevin Hassett said Tuesday.

“I’ve been told that some of the surveys were never actually completed, so we’ll perhaps never even know what happened in that month,” Hassett said in an interview on CNBC. “So we’re gonna be kind of staring a little bit in cloudy weather for a while until we get the data agencies back up.”

The lack of information will leave politicians, Wall Street and the public not fully informed on the state of the U.S. economy and labor market since the shutdown began on Oct. 1. The data is highly sought after, as analysts look for bottom-line information in the aftermath of President Donald Trump’s widespread tariff policies and the deportations of undocumented immigrants across the country.

Some estimates from private firms show pessimism, but it’s hard to know for sure without the more comprehensive government data. Groups, such as Goldman Sachs, estimate a loss of about 50,000 jobs in October.

It’s unclear which data Hassett was referring to specifically. The Bureau of Labor Statistics announced in October that the consumer price index — the main indicator of U.S. inflation levels — would not be released. The government shutdown started three days before the Bureau was set to release the September jobs report, which is expected to be released once the government reopens.

“I think some of the stuff is lost forever, and some of it isn’t,” Hassett said.

Hassett said on Fox Business over the weekend that the shutdown’s impact on the economy was much worse than originally expected due to its extreme length.

“I think we were thinking we’re going to have at least 3% growth in the fourth quarter, now we’re expecting something like half that,” Hassett said.

The Bureau underwent significant changes in recent months, with Trump firing former commissioner Erika McEntarfer after a disappointing jobs report, claiming without evidence that the numbers were “rigged.”

Trump then nominated E.J. Antoni, the chief economist at the Heritage Foundation, before he dropped out. William J. Wiatrowski, a longtime agency employee who was promoted to deputy BLS commissioner in 2015, has been the acting commissioner since McEntarfer’s firing.