The Labor Department said Wednesday that it will not be releasing a full jobs report for October because the 43-day federal government shutdown meant it couldn’t calculate the unemployment rate and some other key numbers.

According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics report, in the month of September the unemployment rate stayed roughly the same at 4.4 percent, translating to 7.6 million people. It’s a bump from one year prior, when the rate was 4.1 percent, or 6.9 million people.

The Labor Department released September's monthly jobs report, showing employers added 119,000 jobs, which is the strongest increase since April. But it also shows the unemployment rate ticking up. NPR's Scott Horsley joins us.

The report will include the October payrolls data that was delayed due to the government shutdown, but no data on the October unemployment rate, the BLS said.

The U.S. Department of Labor's Bureau of Labor Statistics announced Wednesday that it will not publish a jobs report for the month of October.

During the 43-day U.S. government shutdown, investors, businesses, policymakers and the Federal Reserve groped in the dark for clues about the health of the American job market