Report: Labor Dept. Considers Delaying Release of Final Jobs Report Until After Election

The U.S. Labor Department on Monday announced that it is considering delaying the release of Friday's October employment report, citing Hurricane Sandy as its chief reason, the Wall Street Journal reports.

“We will assess the situation when the weather emergency is over and notify the press and public of any changes at that time,” said Gary Steinberg, spokesman for the Bureau of Labor Statistics.

Keep in mind, this is the final jobs report before the election.

"Labor is scheduled to release the employment report on Friday, third quarter employment costs on Wednesday and weekly jobless claims on Thursday," the Journal report notes.

As of this writing, it's also being reported that the U.S. Census Bureau is considering delaying this week's construction spending and factory orders reports.

Final Thought -- If the Labor Department decides to delay the final pre-election jobs report, consider the following:

If BLS magically decides to not release the jobs data on Friday, keep in mind that it completed its data collection over a week ago.

— Sean Davis (@seanmdav) October 29, 2012

However, to be fair, and as the Wall Street Journal notes, the delay (if there is one) could be more the result of Washington power outages and transportation disruptions than a lack of data.

UPDATE --A spokesman for the Labor Department tells Buzzfeed in a statement that they are doing everything they can to have the numbers out by Friday:

The employees at the Bureau of Labor Statistics are working hard to ensure the timely release of employment data on Friday, November 2.

It is our intention that Friday will be business as usual regarding the October Employment Situation Report.

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​This is a breaking story. Updates will be added as they become available.