When is Labor Day? This year, as late as possible

(NEXSTAR) — Days are getting “shorter,” mornings are getting cooler, and kids are getting ready to go back to school, if they haven’t already. That can only mean that summer is coming to an end.

It may, however, feel a little longer than the summer of 2025.

Though they aren’t the scientific bookends of summer, it’s common to consider Memorial Day the unofficial start of summer and Labor Day as the end. Because of how both days landed on the calendar this year, summer was, in a way, as long as possible.

Memorial Day landed on May 25 this year, the earliest it can occur . Labor Day is about to do the reverse, arriving as late as possible.

Labor Day, as the name implies, is meant to celebrate “the social and economic achievements of American workers,” the U.S. Department of Labor explains . The U.S. has been honoring workers in some sense since the late 1800s.

The Labor Department gives New York the distinction of being the first state to introduce a bill to make Labor Day a holiday but notes that Oregon was the first to pass such legislation. That state law, however, put the holiday in late February in 1887, a far cry from where it lands on the calendar now.

It would take until 1894, after dozens of states had passed Labor Day legislation, for Congress to pass an act to make it a legal holiday.

According to Congress, Labor Day was to fall on the first Monday in September each year, and we’ve been celebrating it that way ever since. But because it isn’t on a specific day, like Independence Day or Christmas, Labor Day falls on a different date each year.

This year, Labor Day isn’t until Sept. 7, the latest possible date on which it can fall. That, combined with Memorial Day’s earliest possible start, gave us more than 106 days of summer.

Next year, Labor Day will slide slightly earlier to Sept. 6, while Memorial Day will fall on its latest possible date of May 31 . That leaves the summer of 2027 with just 99 days.

The next time Memorial Day and Labor Day will happen as far apart on the calendar as possible will be in 2037.