This first full week of 2026, we’ll get a good view of the last few months of 2025. There’s a lot of new economic data coming out, from a snapshot of consumer credit from the Federal Reserve on Thursday to the jobs report from the Bureau of Labor Statistics on Friday.
Get some investment bank economists, a macroeconomics professor, and a personal finance expert on the line and ask them what they’re most excited to see this week, and they’ll tell you:
“The key data that we’re going to be watching for is all about the job market.”
“Most of our attention in early 2026 will be on the U.S. labor market.”
“I’m particularly interested in seeing the JOLTS, the job opening and labor turnover survey.”
“The jobs report is really the most interesting piece of information.”
Timely federal reports about the labor market were hard to come by late last year due to the government shutdown. But those data are important because they’re a big part of what the Fed will consider when it meets later this month to determine what to do with interest rates.
Erin Cottle Hunt, an economist at Reed College, said businesses also pay attention as they plan for the year ahead.
“If lots of people are being separated from their jobs, it’s going to be harder for me to sell things,” she said.
That’s because how the job market is doing also influences how consumers feel and spend, said Jennifer Lee, senior economist at BMO Capital Markets.
“Just having a job and knowing that you have a steady income, I think speaks volumes for consumers, for consumer confidence,” Lee said.
We’ll get a snapshot of how consumers are feeling when the University of Michigan’s Surveys of Consumers release preliminary data on Friday.
Feelings trickle through the economy, said Ted Rossman, a senior industry analyst at Bankrate.
“About two-thirds of economic activity is driven by consumer spending,” he said.
And, he said, if spending slows down, that could lead to an economic slowdown.
Rossman said the consumer credit update from the Fed can tell us a bit more about how the early holiday shopping season went.
Still, the BLS jobs report is the big one to keep an eye on, said Michael Gapen, chief U.S. economist at Morgan Stanley.
He said that information usually moves bond markets more than it does equity markets.
“But if it’s a signal that hiring is rebounded and the labor market looks healthy, I would expect equity markets to react favorably to that as well,” Gapen said.
While everyone’s interested in the job market right now, he said the other thing to keep an eye on will be inflation.