What the monthly change in US nonfarm payrolls measures
Each bar is the month-to-month change in total nonfarm payroll employment, in thousands of jobs, seasonally adjusted. The figure comes from the BLS Current Employment Statistics survey of about 120,000 businesses and government agencies covering hundreds of thousands of worksites, and is the headline number of the monthly jobs report. Farm workers, the self-employed and household workers are not included.
How to read this chart
Bars pointing up (blue) show net hiring; bars pointing down (orange) show net job cuts. Clusters of orange bars line up with recessions; long runs of blue bars mark expansions. Remember that the latest two months are estimates that will be revised as more survey responses arrive, and the whole series is benchmarked once a year to tax records – revisions of tens of thousands of jobs are normal.
The latest reading in context
- At +29K, the latest reading is below its 5-year average of 188K and below its 10-year average of 117K.
- Of all 1052 monthly readings since February 1939, 26% were lower than today’s and 74% were higher.
- Direction: down 104K over the past month; down 185K over the past six months; down 47K over the past year.
- The highest value on record is 4,631K (June 2020, 6 years ago); the lowest is −20,469K (April 2020, 6 years ago).
- The full history spans 13 US recessions, shaded grey on the chart.
Why it matters
Payroll growth is the most market-moving economic release in the world. It shows whether businesses are confident enough to hire, which drives income and spending, and it shapes the Federal Reserve’s view of the labor market. As population growth slows, the number of new jobs needed to keep unemployment steady (the “breakeven” pace) has fallen.
What moves the monthly change in US nonfarm payrolls
- Business confidence and consumer demand
- Interest rates and credit conditions
- Population growth and immigration, which set the pace the economy can sustain
- Large shocks such as strikes, hurricanes or the 2020 lockdowns
Key moments in its history
- 1945Large losses as war production wound down.
- 2008–2009More than 8 million jobs lost in the Great Recession.
- Apr 2020More than 20 million jobs vanished in a single month.
- Jun 2020A record gain of over 4 million as businesses reopened.
US Job Growth data tables
Average by decade
| Decade | Average | High | Low |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2020s (so far) | 90K | 4,631K | −20,469K |
| 2010s | 183K | 522K | −132K |
| 2000s | −8K | 484K | −824K |
| 1990s | 183K | 488K | −323K |
| 1980s | 151K | 1,118K | −429K |
| 1970s | 162K | 702K | −613K |
| 1960s | 142K | 478K | −338K |
| 1950s | 89K | 781K | −631K |
| 1940s | 100K | 951K | −1,959K |
| 1930s | 147K | 380K | −186K |
Last 12 months
| Period | Value | Change |
|---|---|---|
| Sep 2026 | 29K | −104K |
| Aug 2026 | 133K | +143K |
| Jul 2026 | −10K | −41K |
| Jun 2026 | 31K | −32K |
| May 2026 | 63K | −85K |
| Apr 2026 | 148K | −66K |
| Mar 2026 | 214K | +370K |
| Feb 2026 | −156K | −316K |
| Jan 2026 | 160K | +177K |
| Dec 2025 | −17K | −58K |
| Nov 2025 | 41K | +181K |
| Oct 2025 | −140K | −216K |
Monthly values. Decade figures are averages of the monthly values in each decade. The complete history is available as a CSV file.
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US Job Growth: questions and answers
What does “nonfarm payrolls” mean?
The number of paid jobs at US businesses, nonprofits and government, excluding farm workers, private household employees and the self-employed. It counts jobs, not people, so someone with two jobs is counted twice.
How many jobs does the US need to add each month?
Enough to absorb growth in the working-age population. Estimates vary with immigration and demographics; in recent years they have ranged from well under 100,000 to about 150,000 a month.
Why are jobs numbers revised?
Many employers respond to the survey late. The BLS updates each month’s estimate twice in the following reports and once a year aligns the series with unemployment-insurance tax records.
Where does the data on this chart come from?
From the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics. ChartWidgets downloads the series (PAYEMS) from FRED, the Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis database, and checks for new releases every day. The last update was on November 1, 2026.