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Nation adds 163K private sector careers in July (1 Viewer)

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rachelmorris

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U.S. businesses added to the workforce at a higher rate than predicted, says a report from the private sector. It is the most recent sign that the economy is growing, but not at a satisfactory rate to improve significantly.
Article source: ADP reports 163,000 new jobs in July

More jobs

In June, the payroll provider ADP publicized that there were 172,000 jobs added to the economy. July showed 163,000 careers added, which is a decrease.

Wednesday's report tracks only private sector jobs, excluding government hires. On Friday, the Labor Department will release its more comprehensive jobs report.

Going up and down

The ADP survey is only the most recent of a seemingly endless stream of uneven reports that hint at snail-like progress in the U.S. economy.

The federal report always follows the ADP report, and the findings are always very different. For example, the Labor Department reported 80,000 news careers for June. That was just a little over half of what ADP revised the figure to.

Cooper Howes is an economist at Barclays who has been watching the ADP report. He pointed out that each month of 2012 the ADP report had been different by 50,000 or more from the Labor Department’s figures.

July was even cloudier than normal with regards to estimating the number of careers added to the workforce. An application for unemployment benefits, which is generally considered a reliable sign of job growth, was uneven in July. During the last week of the month, the Labor Department reported a drop of 35,000 applications. However, the previous week it reported an increase of about the same amount.

Normally, in the summer months, seasonal workers are terminated from jobs with car manufacturers. Because of increased sales, most car manufacturers have held off.

Going really slow

The economic growth has been hard with the sluggish economy because of the European crisis. Most companies are waiting to see if higher taxes and spending cuts take place at the end of the year, and they do not want to hire until they find out.

Economists predict that Friday's Labor Department report will show approximately 100,000 new careers added to the economy. While any growth is welcome, that will not be enough to change the seemingly-intractable unemployment rate of 8.2 percent.

The economy can only improve when the joblessness rate drops, and that will only take place with a rise in consumer spending. About 70 percent of the economy is driven by consumer spending.


Sources:

Reuters

Bloomberg


Daily Finance
 

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