The unemployment report is a fragment of the more in-depth report called Current Population Survey (CPS), produced by the Bureau of Census for the Bureau of Labour Statistics.
This report includes employment and unemployment, earnings, hours of work and other data. Changes effective as of January 2011 allow responders to report longer unemployment duration up to 5 years (previously up to 2 yrs.).
This change is related to the effects of the economic crisis observable in the US since 2007.
Unemployment is a good indicator of the “current” economic situation in the United States, as companies expand employees numbers when the economical situation is improving (due to e.g. rise in demand for their products or services) but, will shrink the number of employees when the economic situation is worsening. The impact of this indicator in the markets is very significant, as traders will invest in the capital markets when companies are expanding, which makes the currency appreciate.
On the other hand, when an economic contraction in the United States is observable, investors will tend to pull their money from the equity markets and US dollar, which may result in depreciation of US currency.
Periodicity of publication
The Employment situation is published by the Bureau of Labour statistics in the month after the reference month, usually three weeks after the reference period.