When Is the Next Jobs Report?
A solid but not too strong nonfarm payrolls report could help soothe anxious investors' nerves.


"When is the next jobs report?" isn't usually a burning question when the economy is expanding and the unemployment rate is sitting well below 5%.
But a market desperate to discount the pace of Federal Reserve rate cuts amid rising inflation expectations has made the nonfarm payrolls report a tent-pole event for forecasting monetary policy.
Let's stipulate that market participants are desperate for the Federal Reserve to cut interest rates because lower rates equal higher future returns for stocks. The fact that the short-term federal funds rate, set by the Federal Open Market Committee (FOMC), is still at elevated levels is hardly ideal for equities.

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And yet tariff uncertainty and a resilient labor market has the Fed worried about easing further. Cut too fast, with a solid economy and labor market as the backdrop, and inflation could accelerate again, the thinking goes.
True, the FOMC could respond by raising rates, but abrupt policy turns don't tend to redound to the Fed's credibility.
Rather, Fed Chair Jerome Powell and the rest of the FOMC are trying to engineer what's known as a soft landing. That's where the central bank gets inflation back down to its long-term target of 2% without sparking a recession that throws millions of folks out of work.
And so if inflation is a case of too many dollars chasing too few goods, a tight labor market and rising wages are the last thing the Fed wants to see.
That's why any time we get a better-than-expected nonfarm payrolls report, it hasn't been the best news for equities. Plentiful jobs and rising wages typically help fuel inflation, at least when it's demand-driven.
Bottom line: The Fed will remain data-dependent as it works to normalize borrowing costs. That's why the market has become so hinky about the jobs report, even though we're not in recession.
When is the next jobs report?
The U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, part of the Department of Labor, releases the Employment Situation Summary – also known as the employment report, jobs report or nonfarm payrolls report – at 8:30 am Eastern on the first Friday of every month (unless there's a holiday or other reason to move it to a more convenient time).
The jobs report consists of separate surveys of households and employers estimating the number of people on payrolls, average number of weekly hours worked, average hourly earnings, labor force participation, unemployment rates and other data.
To get a sense of what the BLS is up to, here's an example of some of its methodology: "Each month the program surveys about 119,000 businesses and government agencies representing approximately 629,000 individual worksites, in order to provide detailed industry data on employment, hours, and earnings of workers on nonfarm payrolls. The active sample includes approximately one-third of all nonfarm payroll jobs."
The jobs report gives us a comprehensive look at the labor market, which is ultimately what fuels consumer spending. Recall that consumer spending accounts for about two-thirds of all U.S. economic activity, and you can see why the jobs report has always been front and center.
For those wondering "when is the next jobs report?," have a look at the schedule, courtesy of the BLS, below.
Reference Month | Release Date | Release Time |
---|---|---|
December | January 10 | 8:30 am Eastern |
January | February 7 | 8:30 am Eastern |
February | March 7 | 8:30 am Eastern |
March | April 4 | 8:30 am Eastern |
April | May 2 | 8:30 am Eastern |
May | June 6 | 8:30 am Eastern |
June | July 3 | 8:30 am Eastern |
July | August 1 | 8:30 am Eastern |
August | September 5 | 8:30 am Eastern |
September | October 3 | 8:30 am Eastern |
October | November 7 | 8:30 am Eastern |
November | December 5 | 8:30 am Eastern |
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Dan Burrows is Kiplinger's senior investing writer, having joined the publication full time in 2016.
A long-time financial journalist, Dan is a veteran of MarketWatch, CBS MoneyWatch, SmartMoney, InvestorPlace, DailyFinance and other tier 1 national publications. He has written for The Wall Street Journal, Bloomberg and Consumer Reports and his stories have appeared in the New York Daily News, the San Jose Mercury News and Investor's Business Daily, among many other outlets. As a senior writer at AOL's DailyFinance, Dan reported market news from the floor of the New York Stock Exchange.
Once upon a time – before his days as a financial reporter and assistant financial editor at legendary fashion trade paper Women's Wear Daily – Dan worked for Spy magazine, scribbled away at Time Inc. and contributed to Maxim magazine back when lad mags were a thing. He's also written for Esquire magazine's Dubious Achievements Awards.
In his current role at Kiplinger, Dan writes about markets and macroeconomics.
Dan holds a bachelor's degree from Oberlin College and a master's degree from Columbia University.
Disclosure: Dan does not trade individual stocks or securities. He is eternally long the U.S equity market, primarily through tax-advantaged accounts.
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