The September jobs report will provide a critical read of the US labor market — and there will be no October report. Megan Smith/Reuters

One of the most hotly anticipated economic reports is finally set to be released Thursday: the long-delayed jobs report for September, originally due on October 3.

After sitting on the shelf for six weeks due to the historic government shutdown, the report comes as affordability has emerged as a central issue in the economy, causing consumers to pull back (as Home Depot and Target can attest).

Thursday’s report will be the last clean jobs report for a couple of months, since the shutdown mucked up the finely tuned process of data collection and analysis during October and part of November.

Some October data – including the headline jobs number

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