ADP says private sector employers added 122k jobs in May. Broad-based is the key concept for this snapshot of the labor market for a change, encompassing sectors and firm sizes.
Private sector hiring in May was paced by services, surging 114k, with education/health adding 57k jobs and trade/transportation/utilities adding 36k. Information shed 9,000 jobs. Goods-producing sectors added 8k, construction led the way by 8k, manufacturing was up by 3k, and natural resources/mining lost 3k jobs.
By firm size, small businesses added the most with 67k, followed by large employers with 40k, and mid-sized firms added 17k.
On pay, job-stayers saw 4.4% year-over-year growth, little changed from prior months. Job-changers got 6.5%, a slight dip from April's 6.6%, suggesting the premium for switching jobs is slowly narrowing as the market has cooled.
In this week's edition of The Hamrick Brief (link in comments below), I tackle a noteworthy disconnect in the economy. The ongoing economic data, including this ADP snapshot of the job market, is generally less negative than Americans are broadly feeling, with sentiment in the dumps. Why is that?
Next up is the monthly employment report from the Labor Department. Economists generally expect the unemployment rate in May to have held steady at 4.3%, with payroll growth falling short of the April gain of 115k. The firm ADP reading suggests there's a chance the Labor Department data could top expectations. Stay tuned on that.