Nonfarm Payrolls (NFP): Release Dates and What They Mean

Once a month, one number from Washington moves the dollar, gold, bonds and stock index futures within seconds. It is the US nonfarm payrolls figure, NFP for short, and it is the headline of the official jobs report. If you do not know the release time, you only see a sudden spike on your chart and wonder where it came from.

On this page you get every NFP release date to the end of 2027 in New York time, UTC and central European time. I explain the key figures of the report, why the first number is only an estimate, and what I do on NFP Friday after trading since 1980. This article follows our editorial policy.

Nonfarm payrolls in 30 seconds

The key points as of October 27, 2026:

• What it is: the monthly change in US jobs outside farming, published by the Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) in the Employment Situation report.
• Next release: Friday, November 6, 2026, at 8:30 am ET (1:30 pm UTC, 2:30 pm CET), with the October data.
• Latest figures: September 2026 added only 29,000 jobs, the unemployment rate was 4.2% and average hourly earnings grew 3.0% over the year.
• The trap: in the same report, July and August were revised down by a combined 60,000 jobs against the previous release. The first number is an estimate.
• In practice: spreads can widen and prices can jump in both directions at the release. Do not open new positions just before 8:30 am ET.

What are nonfarm payrolls?

Nonfarm payrolls are the number of paid jobs in the United States outside agriculture, and the monthly change in that number is the headline of the US jobs report.

The official name of the report is “The Employment Situation”, and the BLS publishes it once a month. The BLS is the statistics agency of the US Department of Labor. Traders shorten it to NFP or simply call it the jobs report. Besides the headline it contains the unemployment rate, wages and hours worked.

“Nonfarm” leaves out the parts of the labor market that would distort a monthly reading. Farm work is highly seasonal, so it is excluded. Private household workers, the self-employed in unincorporated businesses and active military are not counted either. What remains still covers the large majority of US employees, which is why the number is read as a monthly health check of the US economy.

Payrolls count jobs, not people. Someone with two jobs appears twice in the establishment survey. The unemployment rate comes from a different source, the household survey, which counts people. That is one reason why the two parts of the report can point in different directions in the same month.

The two surveys also measure slightly different periods in the middle of the month. The household survey asks about the calendar week that includes the 12th. The establishment survey asks businesses about the pay period that includes the 12th, and a pay period does not have to match a calendar week. Details are in the BLS Technical Note.

When is the next jobs report? NFP release dates 2026 and 2027

The next jobs report comes out on Friday, November 6, 2026, at 8:30 am Eastern Time, with the data for October. The BLS always publishes at 8:30 am ET, one hour before Wall Street opens. All dates below come from the official BLS release schedule, checked on October 27, 2026.

Reference month	Release date	New York	UTC	Central Europe
October 2026	Fri, Nov 6, 2026	8:30 am ET	1:30 pm	2:30 pm CET
November 2026	Fri, Dec 4, 2026	8:30 am ET	1:30 pm	2:30 pm CET
December 2026	Fri, Jan 8, 2027	8:30 am ET	1:30 pm	2:30 pm CET
January 2027	Fri, Feb 5, 2027	8:30 am ET	1:30 pm	2:30 pm CET
February 2027	Fri, Mar 5, 2027	8:30 am ET	1:30 pm	2:30 pm CET
March 2027	Fri, Apr 2, 2027	8:30 am ET	12:30 pm	2:30 pm CEST
April 2027	Fri, May 7, 2027	8:30 am ET	12:30 pm	2:30 pm CEST
May 2027	Fri, Jun 4, 2027	8:30 am ET	12:30 pm	2:30 pm CEST
June 2027	Fri, Jul 2, 2027	8:30 am ET	12:30 pm	2:30 pm CEST
July 2027	Fri, Aug 6, 2027	8:30 am ET	12:30 pm	2:30 pm CEST
August 2027	Fri, Sep 3, 2027	8:30 am ET	12:30 pm	2:30 pm CEST
September 2027	Fri, Oct 8, 2027	8:30 am ET	12:30 pm	2:30 pm CEST
October 2027	Fri, Nov 5, 2027	8:30 am ET	12:30 pm	1:30 pm CET
November 2027	Fri, Dec 3, 2027	8:30 am ET	1:30 pm	2:30 pm CET

The rule “first Friday of the month” is right most of the time, but not always. In 2027 the reports for December 2026 and September 2027 come on the second Friday (January 8 and October 8). In 2026 the January report came on a Wednesday (February 11) and the June report on a Thursday (July 2, because of Independence Day). Always check the schedule, not the rule of thumb.

Watch the clock change if you trade from outside the United States. The US leaves summer time later than Europe, on November 7, 2027 against October 31. That is why the report on November 5, 2027 reaches central Europe at 1:30 pm instead of 2:30 pm. In 2026 no release falls into such a gap. All upcoming US dates are collected in our economic calendar guide.

What the latest report showed: September 2026

The September 2026 report, released on October 2, showed a weak labor market with little change in every major industry. These are the official figures from the BLS news release of October 2, 2026, as published that day and before any later revisions:

• Nonfarm payrolls: +29,000 jobs, after an average gain of 45,000 per month over the prior 12 months.
• Unemployment rate: 4.2%, with 7.1 million unemployed people. It has stayed between 4.1% and 4.3% since March.
• Average hourly earnings: $37.81, up 0.1% on the month and 3.0% on the year.
• Labor force participation rate: 61.8%.
• Revisions: July was cut from +21,000 to -10,000, August from +162,000 to +133,000.

The unemployment rate is the share of the labor force that has no job, was available for work and looked for one in the past four weeks; people on temporary layoff who expect to be recalled count as unemployed without searching.

Read the unemployment rate together with the participation rate. Jobless people who are not on temporary layoff and stop looking for work usually drop out of the labor force and no longer count as unemployed. If both rates fall at the same time, a low unemployment rate is worth less than it looks.

Average hourly earnings measure wage growth in the US private sector and are an early signal for wage-driven inflation. That is why the Federal Reserve watches them as closely as the headline. The next update of these key figures comes with the October report on November 6, 2026.

Revisions: why the first number is only an estimate

A revision is a later correction of jobs data that was already published, made after more businesses have sent in their reports.

Every monthly figure is revised twice, in the two following reports. When the first estimate comes out, many businesses have not reported yet. The report of October 2, 2026 shows how much this matters: July and August together came in 60,000 jobs lower than reported in the previous release, and July turned from a small gain into a loss. A positive surprise in the headline combined with large downward revisions is, in total, often a weak report.

The annual benchmark revision works differently. Once a year the BLS aligns its survey with near-complete counts from unemployment insurance tax records. The preliminary estimate of August 28, 2026 puts the employment level for March 2026 79,000 jobs lower. This is a correction of the total level, not a job loss in one month, and the official estimates are not changed on the basis of this preliminary figure. The final benchmark revision, which may differ from it, enters the official data with the January report in February 2027, according to the BLS benchmark release.

Even the release schedule itself is not guaranteed. BLS operations were suspended during the US government shutdown from October 1 to November 12, 2025. No separate October 2025 jobs report appeared: the October payroll estimates were published with the November data on December 16, while the October household survey was never collected, according to the BLS revised release dates. According to the BLS itself, monthly revisions come from additional reports received from businesses and government agencies and from the recalculation of seasonal factors.

Is a higher NFP good or bad? How markets read the jobs report

A higher NFP can be a sign of stronger hiring, but markets react to the surprise against expectations and to what it means for interest rates. The labor market is one half of the Fed’s dual mandate, next to stable prices. Strong jobs data tends to make rate cuts less likely or rate rises more likely, weak data tends to do the opposite. You can watch the market’s rate expectations move in the CME FedWatch Tool, and our guide to the Fed rate decision explains the meetings themselves.

The table shows illustrative scenarios for the first reaction, not rules. They assume that rate expectations drive the move. The second half hour often looks different from the first minute, and in mixed reports the size of each surprise decides:

Report	Rate expectations	US dollar	Treasury yields	Gold	Stock indices
Much stronger than expected	higher for longer	tends to rise	tend to rise	tends to fall	mixed: growth helps, rates hurt
Much weaker than expected	lower	tends to fall	tend to fall	tends to rise	mixed: rate hopes help, recession fears hurt
Strong payrolls, weak wages	uncertain	uncertain	uncertain	uncertain	uncertain; depends on the size of each surprise and the market’s focus
Weak headline, big upward revisions	uncertain	depends on the total	depends on the total	depends on the total	uncertain; depends on the market’s focus
Rising unemployment rate	lower	tends to fall	tend to fall	tends to rise	negative if recession fears grow

Stock indices react the least predictably. Weak numbers can lift prices when the market mainly hopes for lower rates, the well-known “bad news is good news” pattern. If the reading turns into recession fear, indices fall even though rate expectations drop. For currencies and metals, our EUR/USD forecast and gold price forecast show the current chart situation.

Payrolls are also traded directly as event contracts on prediction markets. Whether you can use them depends on the venue and on where you live, so check the eligibility rules first. Our Kalshi review and the guide to prediction markets at Interactive Brokers explain how these contracts work.

How traders handle NFP Friday

At 8:30 am ET the US stock market is still closed, so the first reaction runs through futures and the currency market. The cash session opens at 9:30 am. Until then, index futures, Treasury futures and forex pairs carry the move, and stocks follow in the pre-market. Our guide to stock exchange hours shows the sessions around the world.

In the minute of the release, three things can happen that beginners underestimate. First, liquidity can thin and the spread can widen sharply for a few seconds. Second, market orders and triggered stop orders may be filled at worse prices than planned, which is called slippage: a stop order does not guarantee your exit price. Third, the price can jump in both directions before a trend sets in, so a stop-loss can be hit even if your idea was right.

That leaves two honest choices. One is to trade the news on purpose, with wider stops and a correspondingly smaller position size, so the planned money at risk stays the same, knowing that fills can be worse than usual. The other, better for most traders, is to stay out: no new position just before the release, open positions reduced or protected, and back to trading once spread and swings have calmed down. Our guide to risk management covers position size in detail.

I have traded discretionary price action since 1980, and the NFP date is a fixed part of my trading preparation. I check the economic calendar before my first trade of the day. On NFP Friday I open no new positions just before the release. No setup is good enough to justify a widened spread and a random swing in both directions.

NFP, ADP and jobless claims: how they differ

The ADP National Employment Report is a private employment count from the payroll company ADP, usually released on a Wednesday shortly before the official jobs report.

ADP comes out before the US stock market opens and is often treated as a preview of NFP. Check ADP’s own calendar for the exact date. It is based on real payroll data from private businesses. As a forecast it is of limited use, because the two statistics measure different groups and single months can differ widely. Traders use it as a mood test, not as a reliable prediction. The report is published on the ADP website.

Initial jobless claims are the weekly first-time applications for US unemployment benefits, normally published on Thursdays at 8:30 am ET, with holiday exceptions.

Claims are an early weekly indicator of the US labor market, and their preliminary figures are routinely revised. The source is the US Department of Labor. Their market impact is usually small. If they rise clearly over several weeks, though, they often signal a slowdown before the monthly payrolls show it.

Conclusion: know the date, distrust the headline

Nonfarm payrolls are the most important recurring date in a trader’s calendar. Not because you have to trade them, but because they reset rate expectations and with them the dollar, gold, yields and indices. If you know the date, you can decide whether to take part or to watch on purpose.

After nearly five decades in the markets, my view is simple: the biggest mistake on NFP Friday is not a wrong opinion, but a blind reaction to the headline. The first number is an estimate, the revisions sit right next to it, and the first price move is often reversed the same afternoon. I take the data seriously, but I trade the market’s reaction, not the release itself.

Frequently asked questions about nonfarm payrolls

When is the next NFP release?

The next jobs report is due on Friday, November 6, 2026, at 8:30 am ET. That is 1:30 pm UTC and 2:30 pm CET. It contains the data for October. The binding source is the BLS release schedule, which already lists all dates for 2027.

What time is the NFP release?

The BLS releases the jobs report at 8:30 am Eastern Time. In UTC that is 12:30 pm during US summer time and 1:30 pm in winter. In central Europe it is usually 2:30 pm, except in the weeks when the clock change differs, such as November 5, 2027 at 1:30 pm.

Is a higher NFP good or bad?

A higher NFP can signal stronger hiring, but whether markets like it depends on expectations and interest rates. A strong surprise usually lifts the US dollar and yields and weighs on gold. For stocks it can go either way. The revisions and wage data in the same report can change the overall picture.

Why is it called nonfarm payrolls?

Because farm jobs are excluded from the count. Agricultural work is very seasonal and would distort the monthly figure. Private household workers, the unincorporated self-employed and active military are not counted either. Payrolls refers to the jobs on company and government payroll lists.

Why are NFP numbers revised?

Because many businesses have not reported yet when the first estimate is published. Each month is revised in the two following reports. In addition, an annual benchmark revision aligns the level with unemployment insurance records. In the report of October 2, 2026, July and August were revised down by a combined 60,000 jobs against the previous release.

What is the difference between ADP and NFP?

ADP is a private estimate from payroll data, NFP is the official count of the US government. ADP usually comes out on a Wednesday shortly before. NFP from the BLS is the benchmark the market trades on. Single months can differ widely between the two.