New weekly ADP indicator shows rebound in employment
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Payroll processor ADP said on Tuesday that private employers added an average of 14,250 jobs per week over the last four weeks, returning to net job growth after a weak spell.
Why it matters: It is the first release of a new report that will offer more finely grained, weekly updates on the health of the labor market.
- What they're saying: "This growth in employment suggests that the U.S. economy is emerging from its recent trough of job losses," ADP chief economist Nela Richardson said in a blog post.
The intrigue: ADP has long used its visibility into the payrolls of employers to offer an alternative to government readings on the job market.
- The new data could prove particularly useful at turning points in the economy, when conditions are changing fast — and even more so when government data isn't available.
- Both describe the current moment, making it an opportune time for the new flow of data.
Zoom in: The data comes shortly after the firm cut off access to weekly data that had been made available to the Fed but not the public.
- A press release announcing the new data series says that this "timely and orderly weekly release ... will be made available to all, simultaneously."
- Richardson told reporters on Tuesday that the "data aligns" with what had been privately provided to the Fed.
What they're saying: "I'm not blind to what's going on in the world, that official statistics are either being delayed or unavailable," Richardson told reporters.
- "Why did it take us so long? We wanted to do it with confidence. We wanted it to be reliable — and we are at that point," she said.
