Since state economists rely on federal data for the monthly state unemployment report, no September report will be coming due to the federal government shutdown, according to the Colorado Department of Labor and Employment.

“Colorado’s September 2025 Employment Situation Report will be delayed due to the federal government shutdown,” according to a news release Wednesday. “The monthly report was originally scheduled to be released on Oct. 17. Federal agencies such as the Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS), the Census Bureau and Department of Labor are not reporting on labor market and employment information during the shutdown.”

Colorado’s unemployment rate stood at 4.2% in August, a slight drop from July’s numbers. The U.S. unemployment rate stood at 4.3% in August.

Many economists and companies use the unemployment information to make decisions. It’s one of the leading indicators of a healthy economy, or whether a recession is looming.

“This report provides the most timely and comprehensive estimates of labor health that you can get, between the survey and census data,” said Tim Wonhof, director of the CDLE’s Office of Labor Market Information. “We’ll be very happy when the government sorts this out at federal level and we can get back to business.”

Wonhof said it’s hard to speculate if the federal government will still issue data covering the shutdown period, but he thinks the September report was mostly done before the Oct. 1 shutdown.

Brian Lewandowski, executive director at the Leeds School of Business at the University of Colorado Boulder, said it’s a crucial time for that data.

“We know that the federal government, the administration, is making somewhat of an exception in releasing the CPI (consumer price index) data at the national level, because it impacts COLA (cost of living adjustments) for Social Security, but we’re really in the dark about a lot of government data,” Lewandowski said. “This is a really important time for government data for Fed policy. The Fed is navigating elevated interest rates and what appears to be a softening labor market, and that’s part of that dual mandate. So stable prices and full employment, and they’re sort of caught in between right now where we’re seeing some instability in prices and some instability in the labor market.”

Colorado’s unemployment rate shot up to 12.1% in April 2020, during the peak of pandemic-related business closures ordered by the government. Just two months prior, Colorado’s unemployment rate had been 2.5% — one of the lowest in the country.

Colorado’s release of employment data will recommence when the federal government resumes operations, according to CDLE.

“We miss the data!” Lewandowski said.