U.S. Private Sector Adds 428,000 Jobs in August -- ADP

By Xavier Fontdegloria

The nonfarm private sector in the U.S. added 428,000 jobs in August, suggesting the pace of job gains accelerated in the month, data from ADP National Employment Report showed Wednesday.

Total U.S. nonfarm private employment increased by 428,000 from July to August. Economists polled by The Wall Street Journal were expecting it to show a much higher gain of 1.17 million jobs.

August's reading signals an acceleration in job creation compared with July figures, which were upwardly revised to 212,000 jobs gained from an initial estimate of 167,000.

Despite the improvements registered since May, the labor market is still far from recovering from the record-breaking 19.4 million jobs destroyed in April as the coronavirus pandemic took hold and economy was brought into halt.

"The August job postings demonstrate a slow recovery," Ahu Yildirmaz, co-head of the ADP Research Institute, said in prepared remarks. "Job gains are minimal, and businesses across all sizes and sectors have yet to come close to their pre Covid-19 employment levels," he said.

Large businesses, those of at least 500 workers, are the ones which added most jobs from July to August, with an increase of 298,000. Medium businesses, between 50 and 499 employees, added 79,000 jobs, while small businesses, with a maximum of 49 employees, registered a 52,000 increase in jobs.

Job creation was seen across almost all sectors, the report showed, with the service-providing sector adding 389,000 jobs. Among this group, leisure and hospitality gained the most, with 129,000 jobs created, followed by 100,000 new jobs in education and health services.

The goods-producing sector added 40,000 jobs, with construction gaining 28,000 and manufacturing 9,000.

The report, done by the ADP Research Institute along with Moody's Analytics, is based on data through the 12th of the month.

The U.S. Department of Labor is expected to release its August employment report, which covers the same period as the ADP National Employment Report, on Friday. Economists are expecting it to show nonfarm payrolls up 1.32 million jobs for the month, and a reduction in the unemployment rate to 9.8% from 10.2% in July.

Write to Xavier Fontdegloria at xavier.fontdegloria@wsj.com

(END) Dow Jones Newswires

September 02, 2020 08:54 ET (12:54 GMT)

Automatic Data Processing (NASDAQ:ADP)
Historical Stock Chart
From Mar 2024 to Apr 2024