ZCZC
BCN-20
US-EMPLOYMENT-INDICATO
US private jobs rebound with a vengeance in June
WASHINGTON, July 4, 2019 (bss/AFP) – US firms resumed hiring with a
vengeance in June as they recovered from May, which was the worst performance
in nine years, according to payroll data released Wednesday.
The rebound in new jobs was still well below what economists were
expecting, but could bode well for the highly anticipated government
employment report due out Friday.
Payroll firm ADP reported the private sector hired 102,000 employees last
month, after adding just 41,000 in May — the lowest since March 2010, which
marked the turning point of the recovery from the global financial crisis.
Since then job gains have come in below 100,000 only a handful of times.
As has been the pattern, the dominant services sector did the heavy
lifting, adding 117,000 positions. Services jobs make up more than 80 percent
of the total employment measured by ADP.
Meanwhile, goods-producing industries fell for the second straight month,
shedding 15,000 jobs. Within that, manufacturing employment was up slightly,
while construction lost 18,000.
“Job growth started to show signs of a slowdown,” Ahu Yildirmaz, co-head
of the ADP Research Institute, said in a statement.
“While large businesses continue to do well, small businesses are
struggling as they compete with the ongoing tight labor market. The goods
producing sector continues to show weakness,” she said.
While economists scrutinize ADP data for hints about the government report
due out Friday, the two are often out of sync.
Ian Shepherdson of Pantheon Macroeconomics said he expects that to be the
case again this month. However, he said he saw worrying signs in the private
data.
“The bigger picture here is that payroll growth had to slow this year
because the economy is no longer being boosted by last year’s tax cuts,” he
said in an analysis.
BSS/AFP/HR/1035