When Is the Next Jobs Report? 2026 Release Schedule

The US jobs report, officially the Employment Situation Summary, is published monthly by the Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS). It contains non-farm payrolls (NFP), the unemployment rate and average hourly earnings, and it is the single most market-moving data release on the economic calendar. This page tracks every 2026 release date, what each report showed, and what the numbers mean for markets and households worldwide.

Jobs Report Release Schedule 2026

The BLS publishes 12 Employment Situation reports each year, almost always on the first Friday of the month at 8:30am Eastern Time. The official schedule is maintained on the BLS release calendar. Two 2026 releases departed from the first-Friday pattern: the January data release was postponed to February 11 by a partial government shutdown, and the April data release fell on the second Friday, May 8, under the revised BLS calendar issued after the autumn 2025 shutdown.

The BLS typically publishes its release calendar for the following year in the second half of the current year. The 2027 schedule will be added to this page as soon as it is confirmed. Based on the first-Friday pattern, the December 2026 jobs report is expected on Friday, January 8, 2027.

What Time Is the Jobs Report Released?

The jobs report is released at 8:30am Eastern Time, exactly. The BLS publishes the full Employment Situation Summary on its website at that moment, and newswires carry the headline numbers within seconds. There is no early access for traders: journalists see the data in a secure lock-up room beforehand, but nothing leaves the room until 8:30am.

For readers outside the United States, 8:30am ET is normally 1:30pm in London, 2:30pm in Frankfurt and Paris, 9:30pm in Tokyo and 10:30pm in Sydney. For one or two weeks around the clock changes in late March and late October, the gap between New York and London shrinks to 4 hours, so always check the local conversion near those dates. The release lands an hour before the New York stock market opens at 9:30am ET, which is why US equity index futures, Treasury yields and the dollar often make their biggest move of the day before the opening bell.

The standard slot is the first Friday of each month, covering the previous month’s data. Exceptions happen for three reasons: federal holidays (the July 2, 2026 release moves to Thursday because July 3 is the observed Independence Day holiday), government shutdowns (the January 2026 data release slipped from February 6 to February 11), and occasional calendar revisions by the BLS itself, such as the May 8, 2026 release of April data. When a release date moves, the time stays fixed at 8:30am ET.

What Is the Jobs Report?

The Employment Situation Summary is the US government’s official monthly snapshot of the labour market, produced by the Bureau of Labor Statistics, an agency of the Department of Labor. It has been published in roughly its current form since the 1940s and is the most closely watched economic release in the world because employment drives household income, consumer spending and, ultimately, central bank policy.

The report combines two separate surveys. The establishment survey (formally the Current Employment Statistics programme) asks about 119,000 businesses and government agencies, covering roughly 629,000 individual worksites, how many people were on their payrolls. This survey produces the headline non-farm payrolls number: the net change in jobs across the economy, excluding farm workers, private household employees and the self-employed. It also produces average hourly earnings, average weekly hours and the industry breakdown of job gains and losses.

The household survey (the Current Population Survey) interviews about 60,000 households and asks people about their own employment status. This survey produces the unemployment rate, the labour force participation rate and the employment-population ratio. Because the two surveys measure different things in different ways, they can tell conflicting stories in any given month: payrolls can rise while the unemployment rate also rises, for example, if more people start looking for work.

Three numbers dominate the market reaction. Non-farm payrolls show how many jobs the economy added or lost. The unemployment rate shows the share of the labour force actively seeking work but unable to find it, and stood at 4.3% in the May 2026 report. Average hourly earnings show wage growth, which matters because fast-rising wages can feed inflation; annual wage growth was 3.4% in May 2026, the slowest pace since early 2021, per the BLS Employment Situation Summary.

How the Data Is Collected

Both surveys reference the week or pay period containing the 12th of the month. Establishment survey responses arrive electronically from company payroll systems; household survey interviews are carried out by Census Bureau field staff. The BLS seasonally adjusts the data to strip out predictable patterns such as retail hiring before Christmas and teacher contracts ending in summer, so the published figures represent genuine underlying change.

The first estimate for any month is built on incomplete returns, typically from around two thirds of surveyed employers. As more responses arrive, the BLS revises each month’s payroll figure twice in the following two reports. These revisions can be large and market-moving in their own right. In 2026, March payrolls were first reported at +178,000 and ultimately revised to +214,000, while April was first reported at +115,000 and revised up to +179,000, a combined upgrade of 93,000 announced with the May report. Revisions matter because they can rewrite the story investors thought they knew: a string of downward revisions through 2025 revealed a labour market far weaker than the initial prints suggested.

Once a year the BLS benchmarks the establishment survey against near-complete unemployment insurance tax records covering almost every US employer. The benchmark published with the January 2026 report cut estimated job growth for 2025 to roughly 181,000 for the whole year, down from an initially reported 584,000, one of the weakest years for US job creation outside a recession.

The BLS also applies a statistical adjustment known as the birth-death model, which estimates jobs created by new businesses and lost to closing ones, since brand-new firms cannot yet appear in the survey sample. The model works well in stable times but tends to overstate job growth at economic turning points, which is one reason early estimates get revised down when the economy slows.

What the Jobs Report Means for Your Money

The jobs report is not just a traders’ event. It is the clearest single signal of job security: when payroll growth runs comfortably above roughly 100,000 a month, employers are hiring and workers have bargaining power; when it stalls or turns negative, as in February 2026 (-92,000), redundancy risk rises and job switching gets harder. Average hourly earnings tell you whether pay across the economy is outpacing inflation. With wage growth at 3.4% in May 2026 and inflation lower than that, the average US pay packet is still gaining ground in real terms, but more slowly than at any point in five years.

The report also feeds directly into borrowing costs. The Federal Reserve has a dual mandate of maximum employment and stable prices, so a run of weak jobs reports pushes it towards cutting interest rates, while hot payrolls and accelerating wages push it towards holding or hiking. Those expectations move Treasury yields within minutes of the release, and Treasury yields set the tone for US mortgage rates, car loans, credit card rates and savings rates. A genuinely weak jobs report can knock mortgage rates lower within days; a strong one can do the opposite.

The effects are global. US payrolls move the dollar, which changes the value of every other major currency, affects the cost of dollar-priced commodities such as oil, and shifts expectations for the Bank of England, the European Central Bank and other central banks that cannot ignore what the Fed does next. Anyone holding a pension or index fund is exposed too: US equities are the largest component of global stock indices, and the jobs report regularly sets their direction for the week.

How Markets React to the Jobs Report

The reaction depends less on whether the number is good or bad in human terms and more on how it compares with the consensus forecast, and on what it implies for interest rates. This produces the famous good-news-is-bad-news dynamic: when investors are hoping for Fed rate cuts, a blowout payrolls number can sink stocks because it makes cuts less likely, while a soft number can spark a rally. The May 2026 report was a textbook example of the reverse: payrolls of +172,000 nearly doubled the consensus near 85,000, easing recession fears that had built after February’s negative print, and risk assets took the strength well because wage growth simultaneously cooled to 3.4%.

Typical moves are significant. A payrolls surprise of 100,000 or more against consensus commonly moves 2-year Treasury yields by 5 to 15 basis points, the S&P 500 by 0.5% to 1.5%, and the dollar index by around half a percent, all within the first hour. Gold usually moves inversely to the dollar and yields. Volatility is concentrated in the first few minutes, when spreads widen sharply, which is why even experienced traders often wait for the dust to settle and for the detail beneath the headline: revisions, wage growth and the unemployment rate can all overturn the first-glance reaction.

Within the report, markets weigh the components in rough order: the payrolls headline first, then the unemployment rate, then average hourly earnings, then revisions to prior months. A report where all four point the same way produces the cleanest, largest moves. Mixed reports, such as strong payrolls with rising unemployment, tend to produce whipsaw price action as investors argue over which survey to believe.

Recent Jobs Report Results

The table below shows the last 17 months of data as first reported, with the unemployment rate and annual growth in average hourly earnings. Note that the February 2026 annual benchmark revision later cut 2025’s total job growth to roughly 181,000, so the initially reported 2025 monthly figures overstate how strong that year really was. No unemployment rate exists for October 2025 because the government shutdown prevented the household survey from being conducted that month.

The trend is clear: the labour market cooled sharply through 2025, with the unemployment rate climbing from 4.0% to a cycle high of 4.6% in November 2025, then stabilised in early 2026. The negative February 2026 print briefly revived recession fears, but the rebound in March, April and May 2026, with payroll gains averaging around 188,000 a month on revised figures, points to a labour market that has found its footing at a lower cruising speed. Wage growth has decelerated steadily, from above 4% in early 2025 to 3.4% in May 2026, the slowest pace since May 2021.

Related Economic Events

The jobs report works alongside other major US releases that shape the interest rate outlook:

• FOMC meetings: the Federal Reserve’s rate-setting committee meets 8 times a year, and the jobs report is one of the two data series it watches most closely.
• US CPI report: the monthly inflation reading is the other half of the Fed’s mandate, and it usually lands the week after payrolls.
• US GDP report: the quarterly growth figure shows whether the hiring trend matches the broader economy’s direction.
• US retail sales: the monthly spending report tests whether employment income is translating into consumption.
• Stock market holidays: holiday closures occasionally shift the jobs report release day, as with the July 2, 2026 report.

Frequently Asked Questions

What time is the jobs report released?

8:30am Eastern Time, which is normally 1:30pm in London and 2:30pm in central Europe. The time never changes, even when the release date moves for a holiday or shutdown. The data appears simultaneously on the BLS website and across financial newswires.

Is the jobs report always on the first Friday of the month?

Usually, but not always. The default slot is the first Friday, covering the previous month. In 2026, 3 of the 12 releases departed from that pattern: the January data release was delayed to Wednesday, February 11 by a government shutdown, the April data release fell on the second Friday, May 8, and the June data release moves to Thursday, July 2 because of the Independence Day holiday. Always check the official BLS schedule or the table on this page.

What is non-farm payrolls?

Non-farm payrolls (NFP) is the net change in the number of paid US workers, excluding farm employees, private household workers and the self-employed. It comes from a survey of about 119,000 businesses and government agencies and covers roughly 80% of the workers who produce US GDP, which is why it serves as the headline measure of how many jobs the economy created or lost in a month.

What was the last unemployment rate?

4.3%. The May 2026 jobs report, released on June 5, 2026, showed the unemployment rate unchanged at 4.3% alongside payroll growth of 172,000. The rate has held in a 4.3% to 4.4% band throughout 2026 so far, down from the cycle high of 4.6% reached in November 2025.

Why does the jobs report move markets so much?

Because it is the most timely, broad read on the US economy and it directly shapes Federal Reserve interest rate policy. Employment drives household income and spending, and the Fed’s mandate explicitly includes maximum employment, so every payrolls surprise instantly reprices rate expectations. Those expectations flow through to bond yields, the dollar, equities and commodities worldwide, often within seconds of the 8:30am release.

What is the difference between jobless claims and the jobs report?

Initial jobless claims is a weekly count of new applications for unemployment insurance, released every Thursday by the Department of Labor. It is a fast, narrow gauge of lay-offs. The jobs report is the monthly, comprehensive picture: total hiring, unemployment, wages and hours across the whole economy. Traders watch weekly claims for early warning between jobs reports, but it is the monthly Employment Situation that sets the market’s view of the labour market.