A technical glitch prevented the US government from sharing key payroll data on time last week, according to a spokesperson for the Labor Department (DOL), who acknowledged staff provided the numbers to callers before the release was made public.

Going forward, the Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) - which the DOL oversees - will release data through multiple platforms, including social media, ensuring the data are available at the release time. And it has implemented a new policy that establishes employees handling data inquiries can only share numbers with clients once senior BLS staff confirm the release is widely available to the public, the DOL spokesperson said in an email.

The delay of more than a half hour in the publication of preliminary benchmark revisions to payroll numbers by the BLS on Aug 21 forced staff to manually upload the data, the spokesperson said. While the numbers were not available to external Web users until about 10.32am in Washington, by 10.10am BLS employees were able to see them internally on the website, according to the spokesperson.

The problem was compounded by a lack of communication within the bureau over how employees should respond to public inquiries, the spokesperson said. Because the 10am embargo had passed, some BLS employees who had the information provided it to those who reached out for it.

Last week’s incident was the latest in a series of recent mishaps from the BLS. In May, it inadvertently published consumer price index data 30 minutes early, and earlier in the year records suggested a BLS economist was corresponding with major Wall Street firms on key US inflation data that were not widely available.

The recent setbacks have raised questions about the procedures for disseminating some of the world’s most sensitive economic information, sparking outrage among Wall Street banks that closely scrutinise such government data to get a pulse on the US economy.

BLS data are frequently cited by the media and relied on by businesses, academics and policymakers to inform their decisions. Trends in the non-farm payroll employment series are watched particularly closely by the Federal Reserve and others to evaluate the labour market and business conditions across a wide array of industries. The Aug 21 release showed US payrolls are likely to be revised down in the year through March by the most since 2009.

The spokesperson added that the government will announce additional measures in the coming days. The BLS had previously said the DOL’s Office of Inspector General was notified of last week’s incident.

  - Bloomberg