Anticipating The Employment Report For May

The economic mover and shaker this week is the Friday employment report from the Bureau of Labor Statistics. This monthly report contains a wealth of data for economists, probably the most publicized in the near term being the month-over-month change in Total Nonfarm Employment (the PAYEMS series in the FRED repository).

Today we have the May estimate of 201K new nonfarm private employment jobs from ADP, a welcome rebound from the previous month's 165K, which is a downward revision from 169K.

The 201K estimate came in very close to the Investing.com forecast of 200K for the ADP number.

The Investing.com forecast for the forthcoming BLS report is 220K nonfarm new jobs (the actual PAYEMS number).

Here is an excerpt from today's ADP report:

Goods-producing employment rose by 9,000 jobs in May, after adding just 1,000 in April. The construction industry had another good month in May adding 27,000 jobs, up from 24,000 last month. Meanwhile, manufacturing lost 5,000 jobs in May, after losing 8,000 in April. 

Service-providing employment rose by 192,000 jobs in May, a strong rise from 164,000 in April. The ADP National Employment Report indicates that professional/business services contributed 28,000 jobs in May, down from April’s 35,000. Trade/transportation/utilities grew by 56,000, up from April’s 41,000. The 12,000 new jobs added in financial activities is double last month’s 6,000. 

"The labor market moved back up to the 200,000 jobs added mark in May, a number which has been something of a bellwether for healthy employment growth," said Carlos Rodriguez, president and chief executive officer of ADP. "We hope that the May number is the beginning of an upward trend going into the summer months." 

Mark Zandi, chief economist of Moody’s Analytics, said, "The job market posted a solid gain in May. Employment growth remains near the average of the past couple of years. At the current pace of job growth the economy will be back to full employment by this time next year. The only blemishes are the decline in mining jobs due to the collapse in oil prices and the decline in manufacturing due to the strong dollar."

Here is a visualization of the two series over the previous twelve months.

The key difference between the two series is that the BLS series is for Nonfarm Payrolls while ADP tracks private employment.