The US’s closely watched jobs report will once again be delayed, the Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) announced on Monday, amid a government shutdown.
The January 2026 jobs report, originally scheduled to be released on Friday, will be rescheduled when federal funding resumes. Data collection for the report has been completed, but the shutdown has forced a delay to releasing the report, which will provide crucial jobs data on the US labor market following the weakest year for job growth since 2020, with the addition of only 584,000 jobs in 2025 compared with 2 million in 2024.
“The Employment Situation release for January 2026 will not be released as scheduled on Friday, February 6, 2026. The release will be rescheduled upon the resumption of government funding,” Emily Liddel, associate commissioner of the BLS, said in a statement.
The Bureau of Labor Statistics has already been faced with significant delays and setbacks resulting from the longest federal government shutdown in US history, 43 days in October and November.
Federal funding lapsed on Sunday following a standoff in Congress over restrictions on Immigration and Customs Enforcement following the killings of two 37-year-old US citizens by federal agents last month. Democratic senators are refusing to vote for a bill authorizing continued spending by the Department of Homeland Security (DHS), demanding the bill be rewritten to include new restrictions and guardrails on ICE agents.
On Friday, the Senate passed five separate measures to fund government agencies through September and a two-week funding bill for DHS, which must be voted on in the House.
House Democrats have so far not guaranteed the votes to pass the funding measure.
The Republican House speaker, Mike Johnson, claimed that House Republicans had enough votes on their own to reopen the government by Tuesday.
