to collect the data this week. the labor department's methodology is to collect the data by phone, by person and by survey each month the week after the so-called reference week, and that reference week is the day that the 12th -- the week that the 12th day of the month falls in. so the reference week for october was last week. the data collection week is this week. so this delay means that policymakers will be making important, multibillion dollar decisions on the part of taxpayers that impact the economy but with less information about the economy. in. >> certainly, right now the economic data is as important as it ever is. there are a lot of policy decisions going on not only at the federal level, but the state and local level. the state is really important. and something that i think is underappreciated, it really is used directly by businesses and