US nonfarm employment prediction using RIWI Corp. alternative data

Introduction The monthly US nonfarm payroll (NFP) announcement by the United States Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) is one of the most closely watched economic indicators, for economists and investors alike. (When I was teaching a class at a well-known proprietary trading firm, the traders suddenly ran out of the classroom to their desks on a Friday morning just before 8:30am EST.) Naturally, there were many efforts in the past trying to predict this number, ranging from using other macroeconom