PipStop

The summer has zipped by and not only are we into September, but we are approaching another Non-Farm Payroll Data release. Remember, REGISTER, to join us for our free Non-Farm Payroll Webinar with our Trading Coach team starting 30 minutes before the official release of the data (5 a.m. Pacific; 8 p.m. Eastern; Noon GMT).

I can't believe how fast it comes every month, but I was reminded by an email that I just received from Interbank FX, which included the following ...

Nonfarm payroll (NFP) employment continued its downtrend in July with U.S. employers shaving 51,000 jobs, marking the first time since May 2002 that the economy lost jobs for seven consecutive months. The Labor Department also reported last month that the U.S. unemployment rate rose to 5.7 percent—its highest level in more than four years—erasing all job gains made over the last year. Revisions to May and June's payrolls showed a total of 26,000 fewer jobs were lost than previously expected, bringing the number of jobs lost so far in 2008 to 463,000.

Several key factors are thought to have influenced the August NFP. They include:

• Employment continued to fall in construction, manufacturing, and several service-providing industries, while health care and mining continued to add jobs

• Notable decreases were also seen in retail trade and wholesale trade—each down 17,000 for the latest month

• The decline of 51,000 in payrolls represents a 0.04% drop that is consistent with the recent trend of declines at about a 0.5% annual rate

• Hourly earnings rose by 6 cents, bouncing back to a 0.3% gain over the month

• Average weekly hours slipped to 33.6 hours in July from 33.7 hours in June

Join Harold Fretheim, Nikhil Patel, and other trading coaches as we all observe the news release and subsequent movement of the market.