Companies in June kept adding workers to U.S. payrolls, a private report showed Thursday, which may ease concern that the prior month’s pullback in the government’s data signaled the job market was cooling.
Key Points
- Private payrolls climbed by 172,000 last month (economists’ median forecast: 160,000) following a revised 168,000 gain in May, according to the ADP Research Institute in Roseland, New Jersey
- Goods-producing industries, which include manufacturers and builders, cut headcounts by 36,000
Payrolls at service providers increased by 208,000
Big Picture
After the Labor Department’s report showed hiring suffered a setback in May, economists are trying to determine whether the sharp slowdown would persist or represented an anomaly in an otherwise sustained improvement. Thursday’s ADP report signals it may be the latter as companies re-accelerate hiring to help handle recovering demand in the U.S. economy.
Economist Takeaways
“Job growth revived last month from its spring slump,” Mark Zandi, chief economist at Moody’s Analytics Inc. in West Chester, Pennsylvania, said in a statement. Moody’s produces the figures with ADP. “Job growth remains healthy except in the energy and trade-sensitive manufacturing sectors. Large multinationals are struggling a bit, and Brexit won’t help, but small- and mid-sized companies continue to add strongly to payrolls.”
The Details
- Estimates in the Bloomberg survey ranged from gains of 130,000 to 200,000. May’s figure was previously reported as an advance of 173,000. That compared with a government reading of 38,000 for the month.
- Hiring in construction fell by 5,000
- Factories cut 21,000 workers
Companies employing 500 or more workers increased hiring by 25,000 jobs; Medium-sized businesses, or those with 50 to 499 employees, added 52,000; Small companies boosted payrolls by 95,000