Nonfarm payrolls
Also written: jobs report, NFP
The monthly count of jobs added or lost across the United States, excluding farm work, published by a government statistical agency.
Released on the first Friday of most months, it is the single most watched economic figure in the world, because employment drives incomes, incomes drive spending, and spending drives inflation.
It comes from two separate surveys, one of employers and one of households, which is why the job count and the unemployment rate can point in different directions in the same release.
The figures are revised, sometimes substantially, in the two months that follow. A first print is an estimate, not a fact.
The usual mistake. The household survey behind the unemployment rate has a margin of error of roughly two tenths of a point. Reading meaning into a move from 4.1 to 4.2 percent is reading noise.
See also
This definition is part of the EPTA5 lexicon, written so that a reader who does not work in finance can follow our market notes without stopping. It is general information and not investment advice. Read the notes.