|
Private payrolls rose by 330,000 jobs last month, the ADP
National Employment Report showed on Wednesday. Data for June
was revised slightly down to show 680,000 jobs added instead of
the initially reported 692,000. Economists polled by Reuters had
forecast private payrolls would increase by 695,000 jobs.
Nearly half of the population has been fully vaccinated against
COVID-19, boosting demand for workers as Americans venture
outside their homes. But new COVID-19 cases are surging across
the country, driven by the Delta variant of the coronavirus.
Employers are struggling to find willing workers to fill a
record 9.2 million job openings even as 9.5 million people are
officially unemployed, a disconnect caused by the pandemic.
Scarce raw materials, especially in the automobile sector, are
hampering production.
The ADP report is jointly developed with Moody's Analytics and
was published ahead of the Labor Department's more
comprehensive, and closely watched employment report for July on
Friday. But it has a poor track record predicting the private
payrolls count in the department's Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS)
employment report because of methodology differences.
According to a Reuters survey of economists, private payrolls
likely increased by 750,000 jobs in July after rising 662,000 in
June. With government employment expected to have increased by
about 130,000, thanks to education-related hiring, that would
lead to overall payrolls advancing by 880,000 jobs in July. The
economy created 850,000 in June.
July's nonfarm payrolls estimate is highly uncertain, with labor
market indicators mixed. Data from Homebase, a payroll
scheduling and tracking company, showed its employees working
index rising moderately in July compared to June.
Initial claims for state unemployment benefits were little
changed between mid-June and mid-July, when the government
conducted its survey for July's employment report. But the
number of people continuing to receive benefits after an initial
week of aid fell considerably between that period.
In addition, a survey from the Institute for Supply Management
on Monday showed its measure of manufacturing employment
rebounded in July. The Conference Board's labor market
differential, derived from data on consumers' views on whether
jobs are plentiful or hard to get, in July hit its highest level
since 2000.
Education payrolls typically fall by at least 1 million in July,
before adjusting for seasonal fluctuations, as schools and
universities close for summer. This year, however, many students
are in summer school catching up after disruptions caused by the
pandemic. Economists anticipate a small decline in education
employment, which would boost the seasonally adjusted payrolls
for the sector.
"We should also keep in mind that the ADP data on the private
sector should not capture strength in education-related
government employment that we expect to be evident in the BLS
data," said Daniel Silver, an economist at JPMorgan in New York.
(Reporting By Lucia Mutikani; Editing by Andrea Ricci)
[© 2021 Thomson Reuters. All rights
reserved.] Copyright 2021 Reuters. All rights reserved. This material may not be published,
broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.
Thompson Reuters is solely responsible for this content.
|
|
