ADP Report: Slight Increase in Private Sector Jobs But 15 Million Still Unemployed

Today, the monthly ADP National Employment Report was released indicating that an estimated 42,000 private sector jobs were gained in July. While this is a modest increase from June’s job report, ADP asserts that there is “no evidence of acceleration” in private sector employment. 



 As the chart above depicts, private nonfarm employment has been very slowly increasing within recent months. The gain of 42,000 in July is positive compared to the revised increase of 19,000 last month. While this jobs report is an improvement, the addition of 42,000 jobs certainly does not make a huge impact when there are still over 15 million Americans out of work. Unfortunately, ADP predicts that employment in the goods-producing sector declined 21,000. For the first time in six months, employment in the manufacturing sector decreased—by 6,000.


The highly-anticipated Labor Department monthly jobs report will be released on Friday. The Labor Department’s report is likely to be worse since it will factor in the temporary Census workers that are no longer employed. According to Fox Business News, economists believe that the unemployment rate edged up to 9.6 percent:



 The stronger-than-expected ADP report also sets the stage for a pair of other closely-watched labor indicators later this week: Thursday’s weekly unemployment claims report and Friday’s monthly jobs report. Economists forecast the U.S. lost 70,000 jobs in July and the unemployment rate…rose to 9.6%


The American people were promised that the “stimulus” would keep the unemployment rate below 8 percent. However, the unemployment rate has remained above 8 percent since February 2009. Despite the ADP claiming that private sector employment slightly grew this month, the unemployment rate still remains near 10 percent for the past several consecutive months. Private sector employment would be drastically increased by reducing burdens on businesses. With the 2011 tax hikes in the near future, businesses are uncertain on whether they can afford to expand their payrolls. In order to provide jobs for the 15 million unemployed Americans, it is essential to cut taxes and reduce unnecessary regulations on businesses. Stay tuned on Friday when the Labor Department’s July job report is released which factors in both private and public sector employment.