Fed’s Loss of ADP Labor Statistics Adds to Data Vacuum

The Federal Reserve is no longer receiving data on private-sector employment from an independent provider, adding to policymakers’ lack of timely information on the economy amid the ongoing federal government shutdown.

Payroll services firm ADP Research stopped providing the data, which covers about 20% of the US private labor force, after an Aug. 28 speech by Fed Governor Christopher Waller that referenced the statistics, according to a person familiar with the situation.

It wasn’t immediately clear what triggered ADP’s decision. The spokesperson for the firm, which had been providing the data to the Fed for several years, didn’t respond to ...