The non farm payroll report comes out each month on the first Friday of the month.  This report basically shows the number of employed and also unemployed workers that work in fields other than farming, much like the title suggests.  The data does not include government employees, the self employed or employees of nonprofit organizations.  All there of those jobs are highly manipulated by forces other than just simple economic dynamics.

Nonfarming payroll is usually a more economic number than it is a number important to the stock market.  The report greatly affects the currency exchange rates with any pair including the USD.  The forex market will usually go gyrate 50-100 pips before the report is even published due to speculative investment.

The non farm payroll is extremely important because it accounts for 80% of the workers in the United States.  This number is usually the go to number for investments in currencies and commodities but rarely makes its way into the stock markets like it did today.

The Dow was off by some 200 points today after a disappointing non farm payroll statistic that pointed to higher unemployment.  The payrolls were slashed by 63,000 jobs in February which marks an almost guaranteed recession.  Investors are looking for any indication they can to recession, and certainly they responded in that fashion today.  Most months the nonfarm payroll goes virtually unnoticed.  The only market to respond to payroll statistics is generally the currency markets, as payroll statistics are a part of an economic issue rather than a market issue.  Today the situation is different, almost every economic issue is immediately made a market issue which is why we’ve been seeing such high activity.