Dive Brief::

• E-verify lets employers check whether prospective employees are citizens or legal immigrants, and about 409,000 use it.
• The online system is part of the Department of Homeland Security and is not operating during the federal government shutdown.
• Especially in home building, being unable to verify workers may mean not filling crews and stretching out completion schedules.

Dive Insight:

The U.S. agriculture secretary, Tom Vilsack, put it nicely about government data being unavailable in a number of areas, including crop information: “The fact is, when you’re faced with uncertainty, you pull back. You don’t make decisions you might otherwise make. You don’t expand, you don’t invest.” In housing, not finishing construction becomes a drag on the financial sector and slows down manufacturers who are finally getting up to pre-recession speed.