Flying Blind: The Huge List of Economic Data Not Issued Due to the Shutdown

The U.S. government produces data—a lot of data, from figures about the economy to steel to crops to commodity trading. And the partial federal shutdown has slowed the flow of data to a trickle, thanks to the closure of various agencies.

That makes things difficult for the many people who depend on such numbers, including corporate executives, Federal Reserve policy makers, farmers and foreign-exchange traders. Already, about a dozen economic releases from the Commerce Department have been delayed, and data on gross domestic product and consumer spending due next week will also be postponed. Reports from the Agriculture and Treasury departments, along with the Commodity Futures Trading Commission, have also gone dark.

Here’s a list of the delayed (or soon-to-be-delayed) data releases, and some of the key pain points caused by the missing data.