The government is back open. Here’s what that means for economic data

(CNN) — The US government has reopened following its longest-ever shutdown, setting the stage for the eventual release of the gold-standard federal data that is crucial in analyzing the health and trajectory of the nation’s economy.

Data nerds (and government officials, and Federal Reserve policymakers , and business owners, and, well, everyone else for that matter ), rejoice!

“It’s been like flying in fog without any instrumentation,” said Mark Zandi, chief economist at Moody’s Analytics.

However, expect some choppiness when the air starts to clear.

The very nature of the 43-day shutdown has created an unprecedented situation: Some datapoints were not gathered when they typically should have been, increasing the potential for big holes in what’s expected to be already m