Inside the ADP Report – July's Job Growth
Bottom Line: July was a solid month for private sector job growth that could have been even better if small businesses had been more successful competing for people they’d like to hire. In recent months we’ve seen more job openings than people looking for work. That’s culminating in small businesses struggling to compete over talent with larger companies that are able to often offer greater benefits and career opportunity. I’ll illustrate that point in a moment. First here’s the headline number from July.
- +156,000 private sector jobs
With a higher unemployment rate that’d just a be so-so number but with near-record low unemployment that plays up considerably. We need about 130,000 new jobs to keep pace with population growth. That number indicates more progress. Here’s the breakout by business size.
- Small businesses: +11,000
- Medium sized businesses: +67,000
- Large businesses: +78,000
Where the jobs were added...
- #1 Professional and business services
- #2 Education and healthcare
- #3 Trade, Transportation & Utilities
We also saw construction and manufacturing jobs ramp up. That’s a great sign heading down the home stretch of summer and deeper into the 2nd half of the year. It’s good news that could be great. We’ll tie it altogether with the government jobs report tomorrow.