While the official October jobs report won’t be available this Friday, insights from the private sector suggest the U.S. could see more job losses this year than during the early days of the pandemic.

Due to the government shutdown, the Bureau of Labor Statistics is unable to publish its employment report for the second month in a row. In the absence of this crucial information, economists are turning to private sector data, which presents a potentially troubling and somewhat uncertain economic outlook.

This week, payroll service provider ADP released findings indicating a slowdown in hiring and a deceleration in wage growth, both indicative of a weakening labor market. In October, the private sector managed to add only 42,000 jobs, breaking a trend of two months of consecutive job losses.