ADP Report Says Job Growth Is Stagnant

Employment data show weakness, but it wasn't as bad as some had expected.
By Simone Baribeau ,

Employment growth has stagnated for the third straight month, according to the latest ADP (ADP) - Get Report report.

The economy took on a paltry 10,000 nonfarm private-sector jobs in April. March's employment number was revised down by 5,000 to 3,000. And in February, the report shows the economy losing 18,000 jobs. Employment growth has averaged 99,000 jobs per month since the survey began in May 2006.

Large and medium businesses and construction, manufacturing, and other goods producers continue to be particularly hard-hit.

"There has been a very sharp slowdown in employment growth and you're still seeing pretty pronounced retractions in construction and manufacturing, and growth in the service sector," says Joel Prakken, chairman of Macroeconomic Advisers LLC, the group that developed and maintains the ADP report.

The goods-producing sector lost 54,000 jobs -- its 17th monthly decline -- while the service sector gained 64,000 jobs. Manufacturing employment fell by 26,000. Large and medium businesses shed 32,000 jobs, while small businesses picked up 42,000.

Consumers are also becoming less sunny about the labor market. According to the Conference Board's monthly consumer confidence survey, 27.9% of consumers -- 3.4 percentage points more than last month -- say jobs are "hard to get." Only 16.6% described jobs as "plentiful," compared to 19.2% the month before.

Though job growth was small, it beat expectations of out-and-out job loss. But worse news may be yet to come. Expectations are based on next Friday's Bureau of Labor Statistics establishment survey. And in recent months the Bureau of Labor Statistics has painted an even more dire employment picture than ADP, in part because of differences in the way the two groups count striking workers and their birth/death adjustments.

Know What You Own:

ADP operates in the business software industry, and some of the other stocks in its field include

Administaff

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and

Paychex

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.

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