While it would be problematic for the Fed to establish a threshold for job gains around which they could hike, advances between 100,000 and 150,000 would be acceptable as long as growth remains in the 2 percent range, he said.

3. Ongoing solid consumer spending, housing improvement

Turmoil in financial markets could be discouraging some consumers from shopping sprees. Persistently low inflation, though, has helped Americans build on savings — a good omen for consumer spending prospects. The household purchases merit heavy attention as they make up the biggest part of the U.S. economy.

In housing, Yellen has highlighted the pace of groundbreaking as a trouble spot for a housing market that's still "very depressed" since the downturn. However, other indicators are showing more promise. The combined monthly sales of previously owned and new homes are on an upswing this year, buoyed by historically low mortgage rates and still-constrained inventory.

4. No further deterioration in exports

Strong dollar appreciation and diminished prospects for a pickup in growth abroad, led by a slowdown in China, have weighed heavily on U.S. factories this year.

The sluggish sales to overseas customers have added to worries that global demand is starting to take some steam out of American growth. Yellen emphasized after the Fed's September meeting that turmoil in the world's second-largest economy and other emerging markets have already tightened financial conditions and could have a broader domestic impact.

5. No protracted government shutdown

A brief stop in government operations due to Congressional tangling over the debt ceiling probably won't have much of an impact on the economy. Growth actually picked up in the fourth quarter of 2013 amid a 16-day partial closure. Economists including Nariman Behravesh, chief economist for IHS Inc. in Lexington, Massachusetts, have said a shutdown this year would reduce gross domestic product by only about 0.1 percentage point per week.

Anything longer could complicate Fed plans to raise interest rates, even if it doesn't scar the economy. While Yellen said the prospects for a shutdown "played absolutely no role" in their decision in September to hold off on a rate hike, Congressional gridlock could "endanger" progress in the more than six-year expansion.