US ADP employment report shows moderate pace of job growth in August

The ADP employment report for August showed private payroll growth of 190k on the month, a bit below consensus expectations (200k) but broadly in line with recent trends. The ADP estimate of July employment growth was revised down to 177k, from the initial estimate of 185k. Goods-producing employers added 17k jobs in August (previous: 7k) and service sector job growth was nearly unchanged at 173k (previous: 170k).

 Payroll growth in the goods-producing sector was a touch stronger than in the past few months, but the industry-level breakdown shows no meaningful break from trend. Construction added 17k jobs (previous: 15k) and manufacturing added 7k (previous: 1k). On the services side, trade, transportation and utilities (28k, previous: 34k) employment growth continued to slow in August, and professional and business services (29k, previous: 26k) job growth was nearly unchanged from July. Financial services added 13k (previous: 10k) 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 225k and a one-tenth decline in the unemployment rate, to 5.2%", says Barclays.