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The 2025 US government shutdown is officially the longest in the country’s history. As of Thursday, the duration has reached 37 days.
As the federal government scrambles for requirements pay emergency SNAP benefits and the Travel industry warns of ‘chaos’ For the holiday season, some aspects of financial record keeping are still completely unknown.
Tuesday, for example, marked the scheduled monthly release date for the US Bureau of Labor Statistics’ job openings and labor turnover survey. This, like many other reports, was not published due to the shutdown. The data would have included numbers from September.
Zack Fritz, an economist at Associated Builders and Contractors, called the lack of reports like JOLTS “bad.”
“We’re not getting the weekly unemployment insurance data. We’re not getting the BLS jobs report,” Fritz told Construction Dive. “We’re a little in the dark now about the health of the labor market.”
Filling the gap are private employment indicators such as those of payroll company ADP and staffing consultant Challenger, Gray & Christmas. In October, based in the United States employers announced 153,074 job cutsup 175% from October 2024, setting the month’s highest benchmark in 22 years, according to the Challenger, Gray & Christmas report released on Thursday.
The Chicago-based company said construction companies cut 1,634 jobs last month, which did not place it among the top industries for layoffs.
While these reports can help paint a picture, Ken Simonson, chief economist of the Associated General Contractors of America, there is no exact surrogate data for JOLTS estimates of recent openings, hires, layoffs or resignations.
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 trade based on what you’re seeing with market conditions,” Fritz said. “But if you see a large decline in job openings and construction employment starts to fall rapidly, you may 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 to members detailing staffing and construction spending data will remain on hold.
The only metric ABC will still record comes from member surveys, such as its Contractor Confidence Index, which measures builder sentiment about sales, profit margins and workforce.
In conversations with contractors and broader media coverage, Simonson said, the only areas of construction that are suggested to be thriving are data center and energy projects.
“Reports from commercial real estate data providers suggest that demand remains weak for most revenue-producing construction such as warehouse and logistics, retail, office, lodging and multifamily, with limited exceptions by location or niche,” Simonson told Construction Dive via email.
And when the government reopens? Dates for future releases are already on the calendar, but Fritz said he doesn’t expect them to be awkward.
“I think there will be a secondary delay,” Fritz said. “I also think they’re very transparent about these things, so if they have to adjust their methodology as they reopen, we’ll see that and be able to consider those potential caveats.”
