Labour Day

Labour Day, spelled Labor Day in the US, is a federal holiday on the first Monday of September, fixed by federal law since 1894. For markets it is an NYSE (New York Stock Exchange) market holiday in the Holidays and Trading Hours calendar. It covers all NYSE Group equity, options and bond markets and creates a 3-day weekend with no trading and no price discovery.

It is not an economic indicator, so it has no level or reading. It measures no employment, wages or strikes. It differs from International Workers' Day on May 1, observed in more than 80 countries.

Labour Day falls on the first Monday of September each year, and NYSE closes that Monday. NYSE Group publishes a rolling three-year holiday calendar. Core trading runs from 9:30 a.m. to 4:00 p.m. Eastern Time (ET), with a pre-opening session from 6:30 a.m.

On Labour Day the closure is complete, with no core, pre-open or late session, and trading resumes the next business day. The date never shifts to another day and carries no early-close footnote, since the first-Monday rule always gives a Monday. Scheduled dates stay fixed once announced and are never revised.

No economic driver moves it. The calendar rule closes all these markets together.

• Stock markets (NYSE, NYSE American Equities, NYSE Arca Equities, NYSE Chicago and NYSE National): full closure for the whole day, with no late session.
• Options markets (NYSE American Options and NYSE Arca Options): full closure for the whole day, with no order execution.
• Bond market (NYSE Bonds): full closure for the whole day under the same rule.

On Monday, September 1, 2025, all NYSE Group markets listed above closed for the full day. Trading resumed on Tuesday, September 2, 2025 at 9:30 a.m. ET, after a normal full session on Friday, August 29, 2025. The day carried no early-close footnote: the 1:00 p.m. and 1:15 p.m. times apply only to July 3, the Friday after Thanksgiving and Christmas Eve.

This shows the first-Monday rule always produces a full closure and a 3-day weekend.

1. Legal rule: US federal law, 5 U.S.C. 6103, sets Labour Day as the first Monday in September.
2. Date step: Start from September 1 and move forward to the first Monday between September 1 and September 7. September 1, 2025 was a Monday, so Labour Day fell on September 1.
3. Market step: NYSE closes all its markets for the full day that Monday, and trading resumes the next business day. There are no weights, no seasonal adjustment and no threshold. The only state is closed.