The Labor Department said it would suspend publication of the monthly jobs report and other major economic data if the government shuts down, including the Consumer Price Index and Producer Price Index, cutting off critical information for businesses, investors and policymakers.

In a contingency plan published Friday, the department said nearly all employees of the Bureau of Labor Statistics would be furloughed during a shutdown. That would prevent the release of the September employment report scheduled for Friday as well as October’s CPI and PPI reports, which provide key readings on inflation.

The Federal Reserve’s next policy meeting is set for the end of October. If a shutdown is still underway, officials would lack the government’s most authoritative data on employment and prices,

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