# U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics: Why nonfarm payroll?

**URL:** <https://boards.straightdope.com/t/u-s-bureau-of-labor-statistics-why-nonfarm-payroll/727259>\
**Category:** Factual Questions\
**Created:** [August 7, 2015, 6:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/u-s-bureau-of-labor-statistics-why-nonfarm-payroll/727259 "2015-08-07T18:55:40Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 3\
**Page:** 1

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**Author:** ![Caldazar](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/8e8cbc/32.png) [@Caldazar](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Caldazar)\
**Post date:** [August 7, 2015, 6:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/u-s-bureau-of-labor-statistics-why-nonfarm-payroll/727259/1 "2015-08-07T18:55:40Z")

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The US BLS released the monthly Employment Situation report today and as usual, it leads by stating the change in nonfarm payroll jobs and the unemployment rate.

Why are nonfarm payroll job numbers chosen as one of the headline metrics? Are nonfarm payroll statistics more useful in determining the health of the labor market, compared to “Employed” numbers, which are also given in the report? Farm work is highly seasonal, but the reported data is seasonally adjusted anyway, so seasonal distortions in the data should be minimized to a reasonable degree (or is this not true?).

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**Author:** ![gnoitall](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/bb73d2/32.png) [@gnoitall](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/gnoitall)\
**Post date:** [August 7, 2015, 8:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/u-s-bureau-of-labor-statistics-why-nonfarm-payroll/727259/2 "2015-08-07T20:20:32Z")

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Probably not a definitive answer, but farm labor is tracked by the Department of Agriculture National Agriculture Statistics Service.

(Of course it’s not the definitive answer… because of the natural follow-on, “Why is farm labor tracked by the Department of Agriculture?”)

_shrug_

Culturally, agriculture is distinct and separate from almost every other aspect of American commerce. So the “habit” of treating it separate is ingrained, I suspect.

Maybe a bureaucratic turf thing, too. It may not even be an intentional choice, although keeping it this way might be (if someone got the idea to consolidate both into one labor statistics service).

ETA: Come to think of it, this almost seems like a good question for Cecil or his [del]minions[/del] Staff to research and put on the front page. They say they’re dying for good questions, and this seems to be one of those.

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**Author:** ![Tim\_T-Bonham.net](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/46a35a/32.png) [@Tim\_T-Bonham.net](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Tim_T-Bonham.net)\
**Post date:** [August 7, 2015, 9:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/u-s-bureau-of-labor-statistics-why-nonfarm-payroll/727259/3 "2015-08-07T21:45:22Z")

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Possibly because farm labor has a high percentage of:

- illegal immigrant workers
- family member workers (often underage)