A method and apparatus for non-stop forwarding of label switched traffic is described. A method comprises each of a plurality of clients separately allocating labels from different exclusive logical partitions of a label space, each of said plurality of clients identifying the labels they have allocated to a label manager, responsive to a first of said plurality of clients restarting, said label manager transmitting to said first client a first indication reflecting labels that said first client had allocated from its exclusive partition prior to said restarting, said first client allocating new labels from said exclusive partition respective of said first indication.