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Inside The ADP Jobs Report - August 2021
Bottom Line: According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics there are currently 10.1 million job openings and 8.7 million people who are unemployed. Some of the job openings aren’t the jobs some of the unemployed would like to work in however, and that’s seemingly continuing to show up in private sector job growth. August produced mediocre job gains relative to the number of jobs that are available. Part of the challenge is likely the continuation of extended unemployment benefits in about half of the country. States like Florida, which ended the extended unemployment benefits, have seen hiring activity increase by 6% relative to the states which haven’t.
According to the ADP Report reflecting the growth in private sector jobs in August, there were 374,000 private sector jobs added. That included...
- Small businesses: +86,000
- Midsized: +149,000
- Large: +138,000
We continued to see across the board gains, though as companies are struggling to fill openings, we’re seeing small businesses having the hardest time filling their openings. This is likely a product of wage inflation, as many larger companies are actively raising wages and commonly offering benefits to attempt to attract talent into their organizations. That environment tends to put smaller companies with less financial wherewithal at a disadvantage.
These were the top industries for hiring in August:
- #1: Leisure and Hospitality
- #2: Education & Health
- #3: Construction
This is the third consecutive month leisure and hospitality and education and healthcare jobs have been at the top. There was a resurgence in construction hiring in August which is encouraging. Hiring demand never waned in the construction industry, however it had been among the industries with the hardest time finding people to fill openings. Construction hiring surging into the top three industries is likely the byproduct of the states which ended the federal extended unemployment benefits. Tomorrow we’ll get the full jobs picture with government jobs added in. More to come...