The federal government will begin shutting down at 12:01 a.m. Wednesday unless Democrats and Republicans can reach a deal on a short-term spending plan.
Shutdowns can squeeze the economy in different ways, from missed paychecks for hundreds of thousands of federal employees to the delayed release of crucial economic indicators. But duration matters. The longer the closure lasts, the greater the hit to economic growth and the work of businesses that rely on the federal government’s daily functioning.
Shutting down the government would come at a delicate time for the U.S. labor market, which spent the summer stuck in a stall pattern because of slow hiring. Without government data personnel on hand, economists and investors won’t get the next big indicator on Friday, when the September jobs report is due.