The Breakdown: Tagged 'sandy'

KAREN BLEIER/AFP/Getty Images

A jobs sign hangs above the entrance to the US Chamber of Commerce building in Washington, DC. The October national payrolls report hits on Friday — that last report from the Labor Department before the election.

The Labor Department will release its October jobs report at 5:30 a.m. ET Friday morning, making good on its promise to not allow Superstorm Sandy to prevent Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) economists from delivering the last batch of national employment data before next Tuesday's election.

In September, job growth was weak, with only 115,000 new jobs added. But the unemployment rate — the headline number that most people who aren't economists pay attention to — fell in eye-catching fashion, to 7.8 from 8.1 percent. This set off a frenzy of conspiracy-oriented speculation that the books had somehow been cooked.

We probably don't have something similar in store for us with Friday's numbers. The ADP employment report — from a national payrolls processor — came out today and said 158,000 jobs were added in October, many at large businesses (81,000), but also quite a few at small businesses (50,000).