The Labor Department released only so-called continuing claims data for the weeks ending Oct. 11 and 18. The government was scheduled to survey businesses and households in the week ending October 18 in preparation for October’s employment statistics.
“Due to technical issues, partial data was posted early,” a Labor Department spokesperson said in response to questions from Reuters, adding: “This has been corrected and the complete series will be available by the close of business on November 20, 2025.”
Official weekly claims data had not been released since late September due to the recent end of the 43-day government shutdown.
Separately, the Department of Labor’s Bureau of Labor Statistics announced that it will release September producer price reports next Tuesday and import and export price data on December 3. The White House has warned that October’s unemployment rate will likely not be released because the longest government shutdown in history has prevented data collection from households.
The number of people receiving unemployment benefits after the first week of support (a proxy for employment) rose by 10,000 in the week to October 18 to a seasonally adjusted 1.957 million, the data showed. Continuing claims rose sharply from a level of 1.916 million in the week ending September 13.
The large increase in continuing claims between the September and October survey weeks suggests a higher unemployment rate in October, consistent with employment lethargy. Private employers cut an average of 2,500 jobs per week in the four weeks ending November 1, according to the ADP report.
The BLS will release its delayed September employment report on Thursday. The unemployment rate in August was 4.3%, close to the highest level in four years. However, the number of first-time benefit applications remained unchanged between the September and October nonfarm payrolls period, which some economists welcomed as a sign that the labor market was not deteriorating.
“This means there is no corroboration in this report for the widely circulated theory that layoffs accelerated during the government shutdown,” said Carl Weinberg, chief economist at High Frequency Economics.
“This should be a relief to the market and should reduce expectations that the Fed will cut rates in December.”
Master’s degree/PR