The Federal Reserve is expected to cut interest rates by a quarter of a percentage point on Wednesday as policymakers steer the U.S. economy based on limited data that has nevertheless kept concerns about the strength of the job market top of mind.

Economists polled by Reuters nearly unanimous in expecting the U.S. central bank to reduce its benchmark policy rate to the 3.75%-4.00% range when its latest two-day meeting concludes.

But it’s a decision at least partly based on inertia, not the firm grounding in data Fed officials like to say they use in setting monetary policy.

A federal government shutdown, now in its 29th day, means the U.S. central bank did not receive the official employment report covering the month of September, a key input to its policy discussion when officials are

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