Public Assets Institute Facts still matter, and the proof of that is becoming more and more evident as we continue to lose access to valuable federal government data.
Today is the day we would normally be getting information about the number of jobs employers added or cut last month. We would have learned if the number of Vermonters who are out of work rose or fell. And we should have gotten data on the ratio of job openings to the number of people looking for work, which could shed light on Vermonters’ employment prospects heading into the fall.
These state labor market facts are supposed to come to us each month from the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) via the Vermont Department of Labor. For the last 16 years, Public Assets has been supplementing these monthly government reports with additional data and analyses intended to provide perspective on the plight of working Vermonters.
Today, however, we can’t tell you whether Vermont’s unemployment rate went up or down last month or jobs increased or decreased because the BLS stopped publishing new data when the federal government shut down October 1.
Vermont Department of Labor NOTE: Due to the current lapse in appropriations, all Bureau of Labor Statistics activities have been suspended. As such, the Economic & Labor Market Information Division will not be releasing the September jobs report today (10/21/25) as previously announced. We expect to release all monthly data when funding is restored, and the federal government resumes operations.
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