Jobs Friday won't be happening again this week as the record-long government shutdown has resulted in a lack of official data on the labor market as well as a host of other important indicators.In the absence of critical data points, alternative data is the only game in town when it comes to measuring current conditions. In a nutshell, various metrics show the U.S. labor market appears to be plodding along, with a sharp slowdown in hiring and scattered signs of an increase in layoffs.Had the Bureau of Labor ...