Jan 13, 2019 - Economy & Business
The shutdown could end a positive payrolls growth streak
- Felix Salmon, author of Axios Markets


The more urgent brinkmanship in Washington is surrounding the government shutdown, which is now officially the longest ever, with no end in sight.
The big picture: If furloughed workers are not on the government payroll, then there's an extremely high chance that the record 99-month streak of positive payrolls growth will come to an end this month.
- A research note entitled "No Gain, More Pain" from S&P Global Ratings estimates that the shutdown will reduce U.S. GDP by $1.2 billion per week, with that number rising as the shutdown continues.
- Markets will increasingly be flying blind, as government data releases are canceled or delayed due to the shutdown. Timely, accurate statistics matter!
Be smart: Federal workers haven't started breaking out their yellow vests quite yet. But this shutdown stings much more than any gasoline tax did in France — and look where that ended up.
Go deeper: All the ways Americans are feeling the effects of the shutdown