Government Shutdown Means No Unemployment Figures for Oregon and Washington

Usually about this time each month, we get a look at what unemployment rates are in Washington and Oregon.

Due to the government "shutdown," those figures will be delayed. According to information released by the Oregon State Employment Department:

The Oregon Employment Department's Workforce and Economic Research Division works closely with the U.S. Department of Labor's Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) to produce the monthly unemployment rate and employment information.  With the recent shut-down of many agencies of the Federal government, including BLS, vital data needed for calculating Oregon's job figures for September are unavailable.

At this time we do not know when this data might become available."

Similar news was shared by Washington state on the matter. Oregon Spokesman David Cooke said when new information is available it will be immediately released. So for now, we won't know what the unemployment rates were for September, or job growth rates in Washington and Oregon either.