Reading the monthly jobs report
Payrolls, the unemployment rate and revisions: what the US jobs report measures, why its two surveys can disagree, and how to read a single month.
The Employment Situation report from the Bureau of Labor Statistics is the most watched economic release in the United States. It usually comes out on the first Friday of the month at 8:30 Eastern time and covers the previous month.
Two surveys in one report
- The establishment survey asks a large sample of businesses and government agencies how many people are on their payrolls. Its headline number is the monthly change in nonfarm payrolls: how many jobs were added or lost. Total payrolls now stand at 159,044 thousands of persons for September 2026.
- The household survey interviews about 60,000 households about whether their members are working or looking for work. It produces the unemployment rate, now 4.2% for September 2026: the share of people in the labour force who have no job and are actively looking for one.
The two surveys measure different things in different ways, so they can disagree from month to month. The payroll survey is larger and better for the monthly change in jobs; the household survey also counts the self-employed and tells you who is unemployed and why.
Revisions
The first payroll estimate is based on incomplete returns. It is revised in each of the next two monthly reports as more businesses respond, and once a year the whole series is adjusted to match fuller records from unemployment insurance tax filings. Revisions of tens of thousands of jobs are normal, and around turning points they can be much larger. This site keeps every published version of each number, so a chart can show what was known at the time as well as today's revised figures.
How to read one month
- Look at the trend, not a single month. A three-month average of payroll gains is far more reliable than one report.
- Context matters. The number of new jobs needed each month to keep unemployment steady depends on how fast the labour force grows, and that has changed a lot with immigration and an ageing population.
- Watch other labour signals too. Job openings (now 7,079 thousands for August 2026) and the quits rate (now 1.9% for August 2026), from the JOLTS survey, show how eager firms are to hire and how confident workers are about finding something better.
On this site
Everything about work is collected on the jobs pillar. For the faster weekly view, see what jobless claims tell you.