What is NFP (non-farm payrolls)?

What NFP measures

Non-farm payrolls (NFP) is the headline of the Employment Situation report published by the US Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS). The number is the monthly change in the count of paid jobs in the non-farm part of the US economy, from a survey of businesses and government agencies. It leaves out farm workers, the self-employed, household employees and the military. The same report also carries the unemployment rate, which comes from a different source, a survey of households. Traders look at both together.

The figure is reported in thousands and is seasonally adjusted, so a value of +29k means the economy has about 29 thousand more (or fewer) payroll jobs than the month before. The next releases in the economic calendar are Friday 6 November 2026, Friday 4 December 2026, each at 08:30 New York time.

When it is published, in your time zone

The BLS publishes the report at 08:30 in New York, normally on the first Friday of the month, and the calendar page uses the BLS's own schedule. Because the United States and Europe change their clocks on different dates, the local time moves during the year. The table shows 08:30 New York on three typical Fridays:

Between the US clock change in March and the European one at the end of that month, and again in the autumn, London sees the release an hour earlier than usual. The calendar converts every release to the time zone of your device, so you do not need to work it out.

The last twelve official prints

These are the monthly changes in payroll employment and the unemployment rate from the BLS public data files, as held in the calendar on 2026-11-05. The latest two months are preliminary and are revised in later reports.

Over these twelve months the average change is +41k a month, 8 of the twelve changes are positive, the largest is +214k (March 2026) and the smallest is −156k (February 2026). The month-to-month swing is large compared with the average, which is the first thing to remember when a single print moves the market: it is one noisy reading of a slow-moving series.

How to read the report

• The headline against the expectation. Markets react to the surprise, the gap between the published figure and the consensus forecast, not to the level alone. The consensus is a forecast made by others and is not on this site; the calendar lists only official figures.
• Revisions. Each report also revises the two previous months, and a yearly benchmark revision re-bases the whole series. A weak headline with upward revisions can read very differently from the same headline with downward ones.
• The unemployment rate. It comes from the household survey and can move the other way from payrolls in the same month, because the two surveys count different things.
• Wages and hours. The report also gives average hourly earnings and hours worked. These matter to the inflation story and are often read next to the CPI (see what is the CPI report).
• Why it matters for rates. The Federal Reserve has a dual mandate of maximum employment and stable prices, so a jobs print feeds into expectations for the next FOMC meeting.

Sizing a trade around the release

The minutes around a release are not a normal market. Spreads can widen, quotes can jump and a stop can fill at a worse price than the level you set. You cannot control that, but you can size for it. Take a $10,000 account risking 1% ($100) on EUR/USD, where a pip is worth $10 per standard lot:

On a normal day a 25-pip stop and 0.40 lots risks $100. If you keep the same 0.40 lots into the release and the stop fills 15 pips beyond its level, the loss is $160, or 1.6% of the account, which is more than you planned. A wider stop of 60 pips with 1% risk gives 0.16 lots and a worst case of $120 if it slips by 15 pips. Halving the risk at the same stop gives 0.08 lots. Which version suits you depends on your strategy, but the point is to decide the size before the release and not to hold a normal-day position through an abnormal minute.

Use the position size calculator or the lot size calculator for your own numbers, the pip value calculator for the pip value of your pair and the margin calculator to check that a wider stop does not push you too close to a margin call. Many traders choose not to hold positions through the release at all; the risk per trade guide explains how to fix a risk you can live with.

A short routine for release day

1. Check the date and your local time in the calendar.
2. Decide in advance whether to trade, stand aside or reduce size, and write down the stop.
3. Size the position from the stop and the risk, not from habit.
4. After the release, log the trade and the slippage in the trading journal to learn what the event really cost you.

Figures: US Bureau of Labor Statistics, public data files (CES series CES0000000001 and LNS14000000), as held in the calendar on 2026-11-05. Education only, not financial advice.

Last updated November 2026. For education only. Not financial advice.