PipWardenWhat is NFP in forex?
Definition NFP (Non-Farm Payrolls) is the monthly change in the number of paid jobs at US businesses and government agencies outside farming, published by the Bureau of Labor Statistics in its Employment Situation report at 8:30 a.m. New York time.
NFP, short for non-farm payrolls, is the monthly US jobs number: the change in the number of paid jobs at US businesses and government agencies, outside farming. The Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) publishes it at 8:30 a.m. New York time, usually on the first Friday of the month, and forex traders treat it as a high-impact release for pairs that include the US dollar.
What the report measures
NFP is the headline of the BLS Employment Situation report, which combines two surveys:
| Survey | What it gives | Size |
|---|---|---|
| Establishment survey (CES) | Payroll jobs, hours and earnings by industry: the NFP figure | About 119,000 businesses and government agencies, about 622,000 worksites |
| Household survey (CPS) | Labor force status, including the unemployment rate | About 60,000 eligible households |
The “non-farm” part is a definition, not a detail. The BLS technical note says agricultural workers, self-employed workers whose businesses are unincorporated, unpaid family workers and private household workers “are excluded from the establishment survey”. It counts jobs, not people: someone on two payrolls is “counted separately for each appearance”. The count refers to the pay period that includes the 12th of the month.
Each release also revises the payroll figures for the two previous months, so the new number is read together with the revisions.
Why USD pairs react
What moves prices is the gap between the number and what the market expected. A surprise changes expectations about the Federal Reserve’s next rate decisions (see FOMC), and those expectations drive the dollar. The unemployment rate and average hourly earnings come out at the same moment, so the first reaction can mix all three. Inflation comes separately, in the CPI report.
Costs change too. OANDA, for one, warns that spreads can increase “following news announcements” (OANDA), and a stop can fill past its level with slippage.
Where you see it in MT5
MetaTrader 5 has an economic calendar on the Calendar tab of the Toolbox (View → Toolbox, or Ctrl+T). The MT5 help says each indicator comes “with the release time, priority, as well as its current, forecast and previous values”, and events can be shown on the charts of the currency pairs they affect.
The common mistake
Treating the stop distance as the most an NFP trade can lose, as in the example above. The other is getting the time wrong: convert from New York time instead of memorising a local time, because the US changes its clocks on its own dates; the forex market hours tool does the conversion. Dated release times for the coming months are in high-impact news in forex.
NFP and automated trading
An Expert Advisor trades through the release unless something stops it. By default, PipWarden opens no new trades from 60 minutes before to 30 minutes after a high-impact event for the currencies involved: with NFP, every enabled pair that contains USD. You can change the window or switch the news blackout off. Each skipped signal is logged as “High-impact news”.
The blackout does not close open trades. They keep their stops at the broker, and those stops can still slip. See the features page for the other checks run before every order.
Frequently asked questions
What time is NFP released?
Is NFP always on the first Friday of the month?
Educational content, not financial advice. Forex and CFDs are traded on margin and are high risk: you can lose money, and more than your deposit with some brokers. Examples use made-up numbers and show no real results. Read the risk disclosure.