Private payrolls plunged in September, complicating the picture for the US economy as policymakers and investors struggle to assess the state of the labor market amid a government shutdown.

The Bureau of Labor Statistics is unlikely to release the monthly jobs report this Friday due to the closure. That means many flying blind without critical economic data are having to key into any information they can get, including Wednesday’s private sector jobs data from payroll company ADP.

US private-sector businesses lost 32,000 jobs in September, according to the report. August’s previously estimated 54,000 payroll gains were downwardly revised to negative 3,000.

However, ADP’s latest numbers come with some qualifications: “Rebenchmarking” of the data was a significant factor behind the negati

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