ADP Payrolls Report Comes in Soft

Photo of Jon C. Ogg
By Jon C. Ogg Published
This post may contain links from our sponsors and affiliates, and Flywheel Publishing may receive compensation for actions taken through them.

Investors and economists are using every jobs reading they can get their hands on to presage this Friday’s unemployment and payrolls report. The ADP National Employment Report is often used as a preliminary barometer for that reading. ADP said that private sector employment increased by 190,000 jobs in the month of August.

Bloomberg was calling for 210,000 earlier this week, and Dow Jones (Wall Street Journal) was calling for 200,000. While this is light on the reading, it is not so far off that economists are likely to change their Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) expectations.

This ADP report is derived from ADP’s systemwide payroll data, and it aims to measure the change in total nonfarm private employment each month on a seasonally adjusted basis. Small businesses added 85,000 of the jobs, medium-sized businesses added 66,000 of the jobs, and large businesses added about 40,000 jobs.

The goods-producing sector was 17,000 jobs, and service-providing jobs were 173,000 of the 190,000 total. By sector these were listed as follows:

  • Construction 17,000
  • Manufacturing 7,000
  • Trade/transportation/utilities 28,000
  • Financial activities 13,000
  • Professional/business services 29,000

What to expect from the BLS on Friday: As far as the nonfarm payrolls report, the Wall Street Journal is forecasting 220,000 for August. Bloomberg currently has the consensus estimate at 223,000. The private sector payrolls report is expected to show a gain of 211,000 for August, and the official unemployment rate is seen falling to 5.2% in August from 5.3% in July.

S&P 500 and Dow futures were already indicated higher on Wednesday morning. After the report, S&P futures were up 11.75 and the Dow futures were up 105.

ALSO READ: America’s Best Companies to Work For

Photo of Jon C. Ogg
About the Author Jon C. Ogg →

Jon Ogg has been a financial news analyst since 1997. Mr. Ogg set up one of the first audio squawk box services for traders called TTN, which he sold in 2003. He has previously worked as a licensed broker to some of the top U.S. and E.U. financial institutions, managed capital, and has raised private capital at the seed and venture stage. He has lived in Copenhagen, Denmark, as well as New York and Chicago, and he now lives in Houston, Texas. Jon received a Bachelor of Business Administration in finance at University of Houston in 1992. a673b.bigscoots-temp.com.

Featured Reads

Our top personal finance-related articles today. Your wallet will thank you later.

Continue Reading

Top Gaining Stocks

CBOE Vol: 1,568,143
PSKY Vol: 12,285,993
STX Vol: 7,378,346
ORCL Vol: 26,317,675
DDOG Vol: 6,247,779

Top Losing Stocks

LKQ
LKQ Vol: 4,367,433
CLX Vol: 13,260,523
SYK Vol: 4,519,455
MHK Vol: 1,859,865
AMGN Vol: 3,818,618