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The Labor Department is striving to issue its monthly report on employment in the U.S. in three days as scheduled, a spokesman said Tuesday.
"The employees at the Bureau of Labor Statistics are working hard to ensure the timely release of employment data on Friday, November 2," Carl A. Fillichio, the department's senior adviser for communications and public affairs, said in an e- mailed response to a Bloomberg inquiry. The statement was similar to one made Monday.
The report on October employment, the last to be issued before next week's presidential election, is due at 8:30 a.m. in Washington on Nov. 2.
Payrolls probably rose by 125,000 workers in October, and the jobless rate increased to 7.9 percent from a three-year low of 7.8 percent reached in September, according to the median forecast of economists surveyed by Bloomberg.
The data won't be affected by Hurricane Sandy because the surveys of employers and households were conducted in the middle of the month, before the storm struck.
Federal government agencies in Washington were closed for a second day today in the wake of Sandy, the Atlantic's largest- ever tropical storm.