US ADP employment report shows moderate pace of September job growth

The ADP employment report for September showed private payroll growth of 200k on the month, slightly above consensus expectations (190k) and broadly in line with recent trends. The ADP estimate of August employment growth was revised to 186k, from the initial estimate of 190k. Goods-producing employers added 12k jobs in September (previous: 17k), and service sector job growth was nearly unchanged at 188k (previous: 173k).

Payroll growth in the goods-producing sector was a touch weaker than in the past few months, as manufacturing employment declined modestly (-14k; previous: 4k) and construction added 34k jobs (previous: 18k). On the services side, trade, transportation and utilities (40k, previous: 25k) job growth rose in September, and professional and business services (29k, previous: 30k) job growth was nearly unchanged from August. Financial services added 15k (previous: 14k) to payrolls.

"Overall, we place limited weight on the ADP employment numbers, given their history of frequent revisions. We look to Friday's official employment report from the Labor Department as a more reliable indicator of US labor markets. We continue to expect nonfarm payroll growth of 200k and an unchanged unemployment rate of 5.1%", says Barclays.