Labour Market

Employment change, unemployment claims, and labour market health. One validated pair: NFP vs ADP (monthly employment change in thousands).

Reported vs Real

Reported (Survey / Model / Lagged)
Real (Actual Transactions / Filings / Real-Time)
Monthly Employment Change
Shared variable: Monthly net employment change · Unit: thousands (diff)
Aligned: Reported and actual data are directionally aligned
FRED · monthlySurvey
Non-Farm Payrolls (BLS)
Source →
178K+111K vs year agoPositive signal

BLS survey of ~145K businesses. First release routinely revised by +/-75K. Uses birth-death model.

Latest data: Mar 1, 2026Fetched: Apr 8, 2026
FRED · monthlyActual
ADP Employment Change
Source →
62K+115K vs year agoPositive signal

ADP processes actual payroll transactions from 26M+ workers. No survey, no model — real paychecks.

Latest data: Mar 1, 2026Fetched: Apr 8, 2026
How they differ: NFP is a survey estimate with large revisions; ADP counts real payroll transactions. Both measure the same thing: how many jobs were added or lost in a month.

Pure Actuals — No Survey Counterpart

These metrics have no directly comparable survey-based counterpart measuring the same variable in the same units. Shown individually with signal assessment only.

FRED · weeklyActual
Initial Unemployment Claims
Source →
202K-8.2% YoYPositive signal

Actual unemployment insurance filings processed by state agencies weekly. Real people filing real claims — no survey methodology.

Latest data: Mar 28, 2026Fetched: Apr 8, 2026
FRED · weeklyActual
Continued Unemployment Claims
Source →
1841K-2.5% YoYPositive signal

Ongoing unemployment insurance claims — people still receiving benefits. Shows duration of unemployment.

Latest data: Mar 21, 2026Fetched: Apr 8, 2026
FRED · weeklyActual
Continued Claims as % of Workforce
Source →
1.1%-0.0pp YoYPositive signal

Continued claims (CCSA) divided by the civilian labor force. Normalizes unemployment claims against workforce size — a 1.2% rate means 1.2% of the total labor force is receiving unemployment benefits.

Latest data: Mar 7, 2026Fetched: Apr 8, 2026
FRED · monthlySurvey
Unemployment Rate (BLS)
Source →
4.3%+0.1pp YoYWarning sign

Shown as context — the unemployment rate is a survey that measures a fundamentally different variable than weekly claims filings, so direct comparison would be misleading.

Latest data: Mar 1, 2026Fetched: Apr 8, 2026
Methodology
Reported (Left column) = official surveys, models, and lagged indices. Subject to revision and sampling error. Sources: BLS (CES/CPS surveys), Conference Board, University of Michigan, S&P CoreLogic.
Real (Right column) = actual counted transactions, filings, and real-time measurements. No estimation. Sources: ADP payroll data, Zillow listings, TSA checkpoint counts, AAR carloads, FRED transactional series.
Pairing rule: Only metrics measuring the same variable in the same units are paired side-by-side. Metrics without a true survey counterpart are shown in the “Pure Actuals” section without comparison banners.
YoY calculation: All year-over-year changes compare the latest available value to the value closest to 12 months prior, using identical methodology on both sides.
Last refreshed: 8 Apr 2026, 17:19 UTC — auto-refreshes daily at 06:00 UTC