INSTITUTIONS AND OTHER BACKGROUND INFORMATION

About the US Department of Labor

The US Department of Labor is a governmental organization responsible for occupational safety and health, wage and hour standards, unemployment benefits, reemployment services, and related statistics. It carries out its mission through a number of offices and agencies, organized into major program areas. Among its different agencies, it is included the Bureau of Labor Statistics, responsible for releasing the Nonfarm Payrolls report, a monthly labor review of the US employment situation. Given that the US Federal Reserve bases its monetary policy decisions on employment and inflation, job-related data is closely watched by market participants.