If it just seems like the first Friday of the month wasn't the same without being able to pore through the Bureau of Labor Statistics' hotly watched monthly jobs report, don't worry. While the BLS has gone dark with the shutdown in Washington, other reports outside the government data suggest the labor market just plodded along in September. The Dow Jones consensus forecast was for growth of 51,000 in nonfarm payrolls with the unemployment rate holding steady at 4.3%. "This is what we have, and thus far it still continues to point to a pretty stable labor market." "Regardless of what the unemployment rate is, people taking longer to find jobs is a sign of some economic distress for some households."