payroll

The $130 million, while large, covers only a tiny fraction of the Pentagon’s payroll.

That not only includes the CPI, but also labor data such as monthly payroll growth, wages, job openings, and the unemployment rate—as well as reports like productivity and the producer price index.

More recent data from Bank of America, payroll processor ADP and a number of surveys suggest hiring remained weak in September.

The “indictment” being filed in the media is that Mr. Berry was on someone’s payroll in China for providing useful information to Beijing, and that he used Mr. Cash as a subsource.

Investors accustomed to dissecting every payroll figure were left flying blind, forced to rely on private trackers and early state filings that suggested the labor market merely “plodded along” in September.