When is NFP? Next Non-Farm Payrolls release

What is NFP?

NFP stands for Non-Farm Payrolls: the number of jobs the US economy added or lost in the previous month, leaving out farm workers, private household employees and non-profit staff. It is the headline figure of the Employment Situation report, published by the Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS), and it is built from a survey of roughly 120,000 businesses and government agencies covering about a third of all US jobs.

The same release carries two other numbers traders watch almost as closely. The unemployment rate comes from a separate survey of households, so the two can disagree in the same month. Average hourly earnings shows how fast pay is rising, which matters because wage growth feeds inflation — and inflation is what the Federal Reserve sets interest rates by.

Every release also revises the previous two months. A strong headline with large downward revisions can read as weaker overall, and that is a common reason price reverses a few minutes after the first move.

When is NFP released — and what time is that for you?

NFP is released at 8:30 AM Eastern Time. In most months that is the first Friday, but not always: when the first Friday falls too early to finish the survey, or near a holiday, the BLS moves it — to the second Friday, or occasionally to a Thursday. That is why "first Friday" is a rule of thumb and the official schedule above is the real answer.

8:30 AM ET is 12:30 UTC in US summer time and 13:30 UTC in winter. Europe and the US change their clocks on different weekends in March and in October/November, so for one or two releases a year the gap to London or Frankfurt is an hour shorter than usual. The countdown on this page converts the release to your own clock automatically, so you never have to work that out.

• New York: 8:30 AM
• London: 1:30 PM (12:30 PM during the short DST gap)
• Central Europe: 2:30 PM
• Singapore / Hong Kong: 8:30–9:30 PM
• Sydney: 11:30 PM–12:30 AM

Why NFP moves forex, gold and stock indices

The jobs market is one half of the Federal Reserve's mandate — maximum employment alongside stable prices — so every NFP number feeds straight into expectations for US interest rates. A much stronger-than-expected report tends to push rate-cut bets further out, which usually lifts the US dollar and Treasury yields. A much weaker one does the opposite.

What moves price is the surprise, not the number. If the market expects 150K and gets 160K, little happens; if it gets 40K, the dollar can move more in a minute than in the rest of the day. That is why the forecast column matters as much as the actual.

The pairs that react hardest are the USD majors — EUR/USD, GBP/USD, USD/JPY — and gold (XAU/USD), which trades inversely to the dollar and to real yields. US indices such as the Nasdaq 100 and S&P 500 are less predictable: strong jobs can lift them on growth or sink them on "higher rates for longer", depending on what the market is worried about that month.

How traders handle the NFP release

The minutes around 8:30 AM ET are some of the most expensive of the month to trade. Spreads widen sharply just before the release, liquidity thins, and stop orders can fill several pips away from where they were placed. A plan that works on a normal Tuesday can fail on NFP purely because of execution.

• Stand aside: close or tighten open positions before 8:30 and come back once spreads normalise — often within 5 to 15 minutes.
• Trade the second move: let the first spike happen, then trade the direction that holds after the first 15-minute candle closes.
• Fade the overreaction: some traders look for the spike to retrace when revisions or wages contradict the headline.
• Size down: if you hold through it, cut position size so a gap past your stop does not exceed your normal risk.

Whichever you choose, decide it before the countdown hits zero. A free alert a few minutes ahead gives you time to act on the plan instead of improvising. For a full walk-through, read how to trade the NFP.

Backtest your NFP plan before you risk it

You do not need to wait a month for the next report to find out whether your approach works. FxBacktest replays real historical charts bar by bar with the economic calendar drawn on the chart, so you can jump straight to past NFP Fridays, see the news marker, and practise your exact plan — stand aside, second move or fade — across dozens of releases in an afternoon. Spread and commission are included, so the numbers you get are the numbers you would have kept.