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This Friday is going to be a very important employment situation report from the U.S. Labor Department. It will be the next to last unemployment report before the November presidential election. Also important is that, going into the number, we will have many other indicators that signal employment trends.

At 9:45 a.m. EST on Tuesday comes an ISM report that will include employment from the manufacturing sector in September.

At 8:15 a.m. EST on Wednesday it is the ADP National Employment Report for September. Bloomberg sees 140,000 jobs added, with a range of 90,000 to 190,000, versus a prior report of 201,000.

At 10:00 a.m. EST on Wednesday comes the ISM Non-manufacturing report for September, which will include employment data trends in the services sector.

At 10:00 a.m. EST on Wednesday is the Online Help Wanted Index for September.

At 7:30 a.m. EST on Thursday is the Challenger Job-Cut Report for September.

Then at 8:30 a.m. EST on Thursday comes the weekly jobless claims report from the Labor Department. Bloomberg has estimates of 370,000 (range 364K to 375K), versus a prior figure of 359,000.

As far as the formal employment report on Friday at 8:30a.m., Bloomberg is calling for the September nonfarm payrolls to have grown by 113,000 (range 75K to 162K), compared to only 96,000 in September. Bloomberg also is calling for the unemployment rate to remain flat at 8.1%, with private sector payrolls growing by 130,000, versus 103,000 in August.

JON C. OGG