The Economy & the Fed
The Two Surveys in the Jobs Report
The monthly jobs report comes from two separate surveys. The establishment survey asks about 119,000 businesses and government agencies how many people are on their payrolls; it gives nonfarm payrolls and average hourly earnings. The household survey asks about 60,000 households whether each person is working or looking for work; it gives the unemployment rate and the participation rate. They count differently (the household survey includes the self-employed and farm workers and counts people, not jobs), so in any one month they can point in different directions.
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