On 2 October 2026, the US jobs report showed employers added 29,000 jobs in September. The same report cut 60,000 jobs from the two months before. July now shows a loss of 10,000 jobs.
Nonfarm Payrolls is the headline number in that report. Here is what it measures, how it is collected, why it gets revised so much and what the latest figures say.
What are Nonfarm Payrolls? Nonfarm Payrolls is the number of paid jobs at US businesses and government agencies, outside farming. The monthly change in that number is the headline figure in the US jobs report.
It comes from a survey of about 119,000 employers covering roughly 622,000 workplaces.
The first estimate gets revised twice. In the latest report, July and August were cut by a combined 60,000.
Job growth has slowed sharply. Payrolls rose an average of 210,000 a month in 2023. In 2026 so far, the average is 68,000.
What the jobs report is
The jobs report, officially the Employment Situation, comes from the Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS). It is usually published on the first Friday of each month, at 8:30 in the morning, Eastern time. It covers the month before.
It combines two separate surveys:
The establishment survey asks employers how many people are on their payrolls. This gives Nonfarm Payrolls and average hourly earnings.
The household survey asks about 60,000 households whether the people in them are working or looking for work. This gives the unemployment rate, which we explain in What Is the Unemployment Rate?.
The two surveys sometimes disagree in a given month. Payrolls count jobs, so a person with two jobs counts twice. The household survey counts people.
What "nonfarm" leaves out
Payrolls cover private businesses and government at every level. They leave out farm workers, the self-employed, workers in private households and unpaid family workers. Farm jobs swing with the seasons, which makes them hard to survey each month.
In September 2026, Nonfarm Payrolls stood at 159.0 million jobs.
Why payrolls get revised
The first estimate is published only a few weeks after the month ends. Not every employer has replied by then. As more replies arrive, the BLS revises each month twice, in the next two reports. Once a year, it also lines the figures up with tax records, which can move the whole series.
Source: US Bureau of Labor Statistics; YX Insights
Revisions can change the story. July was first reported as a gain of 21,000 jobs. It now shows a loss of 10,000. August was first reported at 162,000 and is now 133,000. Treat any first estimate as a draft.
The trend: hiring has slowed
Source: FRED (PAYEMS); YX Insights
The chart shows the average monthly gain in payrolls each year. Hiring averaged 377,000 a month in 2022, as the economy reopened after the pandemic. It slowed to 210,000 in 2023 and 122,000 in 2024. In 2025, it averaged just 10,000 a month. In the first nine months of 2026, it has averaged 68,000.
Monthly figures jump around a lot. A three-month average smooths them out. From July to September 2026, payrolls rose an average of 51,000 a month.
What the September 2026 report showed
The main figures from the report released on 2 October 2026:
Payrolls: up 29,000 in September. Health care added 17,000 jobs, construction 11,000 and manufacturing 9,000. Financial activities lost 7,000.
Revisions: July and August cut by a combined 60,000.
Unemployment rate: 4.2%, up from 4.1% in August.
Average hourly earnings: $37.81, up 3.0% from a year earlier.
Pay rose 3.0% over the year, while prices rose 3.4% on CPI in the year to August. So the average worker's pay bought slightly less than a year earlier.
Why the Fed watches payrolls
Congress asks the Federal Reserve to pursue maximum employment alongside stable prices. We explain this dual mandate in What Does the Fed Do?.
Payrolls are one of the main signs of how close the economy is to maximum employment. Strong hiring with high inflation points to higher interest rates. Weak hiring points the other way.
In September 2026, the Fed faced slow hiring and inflation still above its 2% target. Unemployment, at 4.2%, matched Fed officials' own estimate of the long-run rate. The Fed raised rates on 16 September, saying inflation remains elevated. If hiring keeps slowing, the jobs side of the mandate will start to weigh more.
How to read a jobs report
A few checks go further than the headline:
Look at revisions first. They can be as big as the new month.
Use the three-month average, not one month.
Read payrolls with the unemployment rate. Slow hiring with steady unemployment can mean fewer people are joining the labour force.
Check pay growth against inflation. It shows whether workers are gaining or losing buying power.
Nonfarm Payrolls counts the jobs the economy adds each month. The trend, revisions included, matters far more than any single number.
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