Federal Government Shutdown

The Labor Department’s Bureau of Labor Statistics says it will not release the January 2026 Employment Situation report on Friday, February 6, as planned because of the ongoing partial federal government shutdown, and will reschedule the key jobs and unemployment data once funding is restored. The delay comes as investors, businesses and the Federal Reserve are trying to assess the strength of the labor market amid highly publicized layoffs at major employers such as Amazon and UPS and recent Fed decisions to hold interest rates steady while citing improving unemployment figures. It also follows last fall’s 43‑day shutdown, which pushed back releases of core indicators like the Consumer Price Index and prior labor reports, underscoring how repeated funding standoffs are degrading the government’s ability to provide timely economic data. Markets and policymakers now face a gap in official hiring information at a moment when questions about whether the economy is slowing or merely rebalancing are already front and center.