US canceling October's employment report after shutdown prevented data collection

WASHINGTON (Reuters) -The U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics said on Wednesday it would not be publishing the closely watched employment report for October, but will combine nonfarm payrolls for that month with November's report after the recently ended government shutdown prevented the collection of data for the household survey.

That means October's unemployment rate will never be known, something that the White House had warned would happen.

"Establishment survey data from the Current Employment Statistics survey for October 2025 will be published with the November 2025 data," BLS said in a statement. "Household survey data from the Current Population Survey could not be collected for the October 2025 reference period due to a lapse in appropriations. The household survey data is not able to be retroactively collected."

The establishment survey covers the nonfarm payrolls component of the employment report. The unemployment rate and other ratios are calculated from the household survey.

The BLS will on Thursday publish September's employment report, which was delayed by the 43-day government shutdown.

November's employment report will be released on December 16, the BLS said. That would be after the Federal Reserve's December 9-10 policy meeting.

"The collection period for November 2025 data will be extended for both surveys, and extra processing time will be added," the agency said.

(Reporting by Lucia Mutikani and Katharine Jackson; Editing by Chizu Nomiyama)