Nonfarm payrolls is something you want to be familiar with if you want to have an edge in finance. Nonfarm Payrolls, aka NFP, describes goods, construction and
manufacturing companies in the US. NFP excludes farm workers, private household
employees, or non-profit organization employees.
This influential statistic and economic indicator is
released monthly by the United States Department of Labor as part of a report
on the state of the labor market.
The financial assets that are most affected by NFP
info include the US dollar, equities and gold. The markets react quickly
and most of the time in a volatile fashion around the time the NFP info is
released. The short-term market changes indicate there is a strong correlation
between the NFP info and the strength of the US dollar.
The info is realeased by the Bureau of Labor Statistics on the third Friday after the conclusion of the reference
week, at 8:30 a.m. Eastern Time. Nonfarm payroll is included in the monthly
Employment Situation, most commonly referred to as “the jobs report”, and affects the US dollar, the Foreign
exchange market, the bond market, and the stock market.
The figure released is the change in the NFP, compared to
the previous month, and is usually between +9,000 and +249,000 during
non-recessional times. The NFP number is meant to represent the number of jobs
added or lost in the economy over the last month, not including jobs relating
to the farming industry.
