It’s unclear just how many federal workers the Trump administration has laid off, fired or put on leave at this point. And it may remain unclear for a while. The February jobs report from the Bureau of Labor Statistics comes out March 7, but because of how jobs data is collected, it’s unlikely to give us a good picture of what’s been going on.  

It’s sort of funny that we call the February jobs report, the February jobs report. Because Harry Holzer, a former chief economist at the Labor Department, said it doesn’t really capture all of February.

“It’s a snapshot of the month that occurs within a specific week,” Holzer said.

The Bureau of Labor Statistics surveys workers during the seven days that include the 12th day of the month. It’s called the reference week. And February’s reference week happened before a lot of these recent federal cuts, which means they won’t show up in the data until the March jobs report. Plus, it’ll be a while before people who took buyouts show up at all. 

“Because they won’t be looking for new jobs in most cases,” Holzer said.

They might wait a while to job hunt. Others may have retired. 

Martha Gimbel, executive director of the Budget Lab at Yale University, said federal layoffs alone won’t change the unemployment rate that much. 

“I think people have to keep in mind how big the United States economy is,” Gimbel said.

There are more than 2 million federal employees. The total U.S. labor force adds up to 170 million.

“Just from a pure economy standpoint, the private sector can absorb those people,” she said.

Of course, from a personal standpoint, job loss is difficult. Especially for workers who’ve spent their careers with the government.

Big picture: Federal cuts will ripple out beyond the federal workforce, said Aaron Sojourner, an economist at the W.E. Upjohn Institute for Employment Research.  

“Most of the federal spending is not spent on public employees, but spent on private sector employees through contracts,” Sojourner said.

Contracts and grants. Which means it’ll be months before we get a clearer picture of the full impact of these government cuts on the labor force.