Shutdown delays Labor data, leaving Fed with less hiring info

The partial federal government shutdown that began Wednesday disrupted a raft of economic releases, leaving policymakers, investors and businesses without the Labor Department's closely watched September jobs report and other routine data that would normally be published Friday. The Bureau of Labor Statistics is expected to withhold the nonfarm payrolls report and the weekly unemployment-claims tally while the agency remains closed, creating an immediate gap in the official gauge of hiring, wages and joblessness.

Those statistics inform Federal Reserve deliberations on interest rates and guide corporate and investment decisions. With inflation still above the Fed's 2 percent goal and hiring having slowed markedly in recent months, officials face an unusual narrowing of information ahead of upcoming policy dates. Fed Chair Jerome Powell has said the central bank will proceed on a meeting-by-meeting basis and monitor incoming data, but officials may have less federal information than usual for the Fed's next scheduled meeting later this month.

Private and nonprofit measures are filling some of the void but provide an incomplete picture. Payroll processor ADP reported that...