U.S. businesses stepped up hiring in August after a dismal July, but the 428,000 added to private payrolls fell well short of analyst estimates and reflected ongoing lethargy in the labor market. Hiring data reported Wednesday were less than half the 1.17 million projected, according to ADP. However, the private payroll firm’s counts have veered significantly from the government’s since the pandemic began in March. Economists are cautiously optimistic heading into fall, as more Americans begin returning to work and school, even as U.S. novel coronavirus cases now surpass 6 million and at least 182,000 Americans have died. Clusters of infections have been reported in newly reopened college campuses and high schools, factories and other workplaces.

On Wednesday, ADP also revised July’s job gains from 167,000 to 212,000. By comparison, the Labor Department said 1.8 million jobs were created that month, bringing the unemployment rate down to 10.2 percent.
“The August job postings demonstrate a slow recovery,” Ahu Yildirmaz, vice president and co-head of the ADP Research Institute, said in a news release. “Job gains are minimal, and businesses across all sizes and sectors have yet to come close to their pre-COVID-19 employment levels.”

Nearly all of last month’s job growth came in service sectors, ADP reported. The 389,000 new positions spanned trade and transportation, leisure and hospitality, and education and health, as the back-to-school season got underway and states continued to ease up on restrictions on travel and business. The goods-producing sector created 40,000 jobs, mostly in construction. Information jobs fell by 1,000. Large companies, or those with at least 500 employees, added the most jobs, at 298,000. Small businesses, or those with fewer than 50 workers, lagged across all industries but still gained a net 52,000 employees in August. Midsize employers expanded by 79,000 workers.

Posted in: USA