Jobs Report May Be Delayed by Storm WASHINGTON - Hurricane Sandy might force the Labor Department to delay the release of the monthly report on the nation's unemployment, due Friday morning, the most hotly anticipated piece of economic data to come out before the election. The Bureau of Labor Statistics, the data and statistics division of the Labor Department, is scheduled to release the October jobs report at 8:30 a.m. on Friday. But the hurricane has shuttered government offices and closed public transportation in and around Washington, and that might lead the department to delay the release of the report. "We will assess the situation when the weather emergency is over and notify the press and public of any changes at that time," a bureau spokesman, Gary Steinberg, wrote Monday in an e-mail. Another Labor Department spokesman, Carl Fillichio, said in an e-mail that employees were "working hard to ensure the timely release of employment data" at the end of the week. It is our intention that Friday will be business as usual regarding the October Employment Situation Report. The Labor Department has already completed the monthly surveys of about 60,000 households and 140,000 businesses and government offices that provide the raw data for the jobs report. But bureau specialists need to translate that raw data into the jobs report every month. Economists do not expect great surprises in October's jobs figures. The unemployment rate is expected to stay about where it is and the slow, steady pace of jobs growth to continue. In September, the unemployment rate dropped to 7.8 percent, the lowest rate since President Obama took office but still elevated because of the recession. Even the possibility that the report might be delayed prompted online criticism on Monday, with some accusing the bureau of delaying the jobs numbers for President Obama's benefit. The bureau came under similar criticism after the September employment numbers came out much stronger than many economists expected, with some partisans crying foul and accusing the bureau of cooking the books. "Labor Dept. says may release latest unemployment figures until after election," said Senator Charles E. Grassley, Republican of Iowa, in a Twitter message. Par for course. Why release something might hurt Obama elect? Labor Department employees and other experts from across the ideological spectrum dismissed the notion that the government would massage jobs figures for anyone's political benefit. And the department has not said it will delay the jobs numbers until after the election, or if it will need to delay them at all. If the jobs report ends up getting postponed, which was first reported as a possibility by The Wall Street Journal on Monday, it would be just one more kink that the gigantic hurricane has thrown into the final days of the presidential and Congressional campaigns.