Despite the federal shutdown, city workers are still hard at work — for now, anyway...

The Labor Department says it won't be releasing its closely watched monthly jobs figures as scheduled on Friday due to the government shutdown. That will leave Federal Reserve policymakers, economists and financial markets without key data for making decisions.

In a report, the department warns that a default could do damage to the economy to rival the Great Recession.

A scant increase last week is another sign that the labor market is on the mend, economists say. There were 308,000 first-time claims for unemployment insurance, up 1,000 from the week before.

On Wednesday, President Obama invited the top four congressional leaders to the White House for a chat. But after the meeting, no progress was reported on reopening the government. Hundreds of thousands of federal workers have been idled and services curbed across the country.

Flooding in Colorado has taken a toll on the state's small businesses. In the small town of Lyons, the road to recovery looks especially long. Businesses there not only need to repair damage, but also stay afloat for as long as six months without much of their customer base. That's because damaged water and sewage lines have made many parts of town unlivable.

From Acadia in Maine to Zion in Utah to the North Cascades in Washington, America's 401 national park areas have gates blocking entrance roads. National forest and Bureau of Land Management lands would nearly be impossible to close because there are so many access points.

Nationwide, many cash-strapped cities have raided funds intended for retirees or have chronically underfunded their pension systems. But despite a budget crunch, Milwaukee's fund has consistently ranked among the nation's top pension programs. Even so, some changes lie ahead for city workers.

Furloughed workers? Deserted national parks? OK, that's a problem. But here's a little silver lining to the crisis: Displaced tourists are turning to other attractions, restaurants are turning hungry government workers into customers, and ironic T-shirts about the crisis are flying off the racks.