The 2025 U.S. government shutdown is officially the longest in the nation’s history. As of Thursday, it’s reached 37 days long.
As the federal government duels over requirements to pay emergency SNAP benefits and the travel industry warns of “chaos” ahead for the holiday season, some aspects of economic recordkeeping remain completely unknown.
Tuesday, for example, marked the regular monthly scheduled release date for the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics’ job openings and labor turnover survey. That, like many other reports, was not released due to the shutdown. The data would have included numbers from September.
Zack Fritz, economist for Associated Builders and Contractors, called the lack of reports like JOLTS a “bummer.”
“We're not getting the weekly unemployment insurance data. We’re not getting the BLS jobs report,” Fritz told Construction Dive. “We are kind of in the dark on the health of the labor market now.”
Filling the vacuum are private employment gauges such as those from payroll company ADP and staffing consultant Challenger, Gray & Christmas. In October, U.S.-based employers announced 153,074 job cuts, up 175% from October 2024, setting the highest benchmark for the month in 22 years, according to the Challenger, Gray & Christmas’s report, released Thursday.
The Chicago-based company said construction firms cut 1,634 jobs last month, which did not place it among the top industries for layoffs.
Though such reports can help paint a picture, Ken Simonson, chief economist for the Associated General Contractors of America, there is no exact substitute data for JOLTS estimates of recent openings, hires, layoffs or quits.
Experts view the JOLTS survey as volatile, due to the nature of a cyclical economy, updated payrolls, seasonal workers and revised numbers. Still, it is a key resource for understanding the economy.
“I think you're pretty safe, at least in the short term, to operate based on what you're seeing with market conditions,” Fritz said. “But if you see a huge decrease in job openings and construction employment starts to fall rapidly, you might change your hiring strategy in the short term.”
Broader impact and future
ABC has posted that due to the government shutdown and no economic data, reports for members detailing data construction staffing and spending will remain on pause.
The one metric that ABC will still record comes from member surveys, such as its Contractor Confidence Index, which measures builders’ sentiment around sales, profit margins and staffing.
In conversations with contractors and from broader media coverage, Simonson said, the only areas of construction suggested to be thriving are data center and power projects.
“Reports from commercial real estate data providers suggest demand remains weak for most income-producing construction, such as warehouses & logistics, retail, offices, lodging, and multifamily, with limited exceptions by location or niche,” Simonson told Construction Dive via email.
And what about when the government re-opens? Dates for future releases are already on the calendar, but Fritz said not to expect those to be ironclad.
“I think there'll be a secondary delay,” Fritz said. “I also think that they're very transparent about these things, so if they do have to adjust their methodology as they reopen we'll see that and be able to consider those potential caveats.”
