It’s jobs week again and the payroll company ADP got things started, reporting that payrolls expanded by 475,000 in February.
Why it matters: That comes on the heels of another huge gain in January of 509,000. However, ADP initially reported a payroll decline of more than 300,000 for January. The 509,000 was a significant revision.
The bigger data point, as always, is the Friday jobs report from the Bureau of Labor Statistics. It said the economy added 467,000 jobs in January when most were expecting a decline (like ADP initially showed) because of Omicron. The big gain was an encouraging surprise.
- The consensus estimate for February jobs gains is 440,000, which would track with the ADP figure.
Be smart: No matter the topline number, we will be watching closely for how many people entered the labor force last month. In January, almost 1.4 million workers joined into the labor market. We need another strong month like that to start filling those 4.6 million job openings.
—Curtis Dubay, Senior Economist, U.S. Chamber of Commerce |