United States President Donald Trump’s top economic advisor said Thursday, November 13, that an official report on how the jobs market fared in October will not include the unemployment rate, as the government shutdown hit data collection. “We’ll get sort of half a jobs report,” said Kevin Hassett, director of the White House National Economic Council. “We will never know what the unemployment rate was in October.”

Trump signed a bill late Wednesday to end the shutdown, the longest in US history at 43 days, but the freeze had halted data collection with workers furloughed. Besides the employment report, the government also paused the publication of figures on consumer inflation, retail sales and others during the stoppage. Hassett said he expects the September jobs report could be released next week. But even as payroll numbers for October can be tabulated, he added, one of the surveys, involving the unemployment rate, was not completed.

Hassett also acknowledged affordability issues that Americans are facing, pointing to a loss of purchasing power in recent years. But he blamed former president Joe Biden for what he said was a $3,400 drop in real purchasing power under the past administration. He argued that this rose by $1,200 since Trump returned to the presidency in January, but conceded that “Americans, rightly, are frustrated.” He added: “That’s something that we’re going to fix, and we’re going to fix it right away.”

The Trump administration has been working to convince Americans of the economy’s strength as costs of living emerged as a key voter concern in recent elections in New York City, New Jersey and Virginia. On Wednesday, Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent said that consumers should expect an announcement to lower costs of coffee and fruit as households grapple with affordability while recent tariffs also bite.