The unemployment rate is forecast holding steady at a six-year low of 5.9 percent. The relatively strong pace of job gains also signals that the slack in the labor market is being absorbed. The Labor Department will release its monthly employment report at 8:30 a.m. (1330 GMT) on Friday. Wage growth has been the missing piece of the jobs recovery and without significant increases, most economists say the Fed will be in no rush to lift benchmark lending rates that it has kept near zero since December 2008.