US Jobs Report

What is the jobs report?

Each month the US Bureau of Labor Statistics publishes the Employment Situation, known as the jobs report. It counts the jobs on employers’ payrolls outside farms, and the share of people who want work but cannot find it. The change in that count from the month before is the number the news calls jobs added.

What is the unemployment rate?

It is the share of people who want a job and have looked for one recently, but do not have one. People who have stopped looking are not counted. A rising rate means more people are out of work.

Why is the job count revised?

The first count for a month comes before every employer has answered. As more answers arrive, the month is revised in each of the next two reports, and once a year the counts are reset to more complete records. So the latest month is a first estimate, and earlier months can change.

Why do people look at it next to Bitcoin?

Hiring shapes how much people earn and spend, and it influences what central banks do about interest rates, so the jobs report is watched closely by people who trade. The link to Bitcoin is loose, and one month’s figure says little on its own.

How is it worked out?

Each month’s change in jobs is Maketo’s calculation: the number of jobs counted that month, minus the number counted the month before. The counts are the Bureau of Labor Statistics’ total nonfarm employment, from its monthly survey of employers. It covers nearly every job outside farms and is adjusted for the usual ups and downs of the seasons. The unemployment rate is the Bureau’s published share of people who want a job but do not have one, from a separate monthly survey of households. Both come from the monthly jobs report, formally the Employment Situation, and the page shows each month once the Bureau has published it. A month’s job count is revised in the next two reports, and once a year the counts are reset to more complete records, so earlier months of the job count on this page can change. The household survey was not collected in October 2025 because of the US government shutdown, so the unemployment rate has no figure for that month.

What does it not tell you?

It counts jobs and people looking for work, not how good the jobs are or how much they pay. The latest months are revised later, and a first figure can turn out quite different. It does not say where Bitcoin will move.