ADP Reports Job Growth More Than Expected

Small businesses (up to 49 employees) added 84,000 jobs in June, while medium-size business (up to 499 employees) added 55,000 jobs. Large employers added 49,000 new jobs, with about 75% of the jobs added by firms with more than 1,000 employees.

Construction companies added 21,000 jobs, which is good news, but manufacturing firms added only 1,000 jobs, which is not so good, except that it represents the first gain in manufacturing jobs in the past three months.

The ADP report comes two days before the “official” nonfarm payroll report for June from the federal government. That report is expected to show that 161,000 nonfarm jobs were added in June, including 175,000 new jobs at private employers and a loss of 14,000 government jobs. The unemployment rate is expected to improve to 7.5%.

Given that tomorrow is a holiday and Friday is expected to be a slow trading day, it is entirely possible that the government report will generate big swings in prices for stocks and bonds.