Businesses in the U.S. created a lackluster 374,000 new jobs in August, a new ADP survey found, suggesting the delta strain of the coronavirus depressed hiring last month. The increase in private-sector jobs was weaker than expected. Economists surveyed by The Wall Street Journal had forecast a 600,000 increase. The ADP employment report sometimes acts as an early-warning system of sorts for the government’s more comprehensive employment survey that comes out a few days later. Yet the two reports also diverge quite sharply from time to time and that’s been especially true during the pandemic. In July, for example, ADP said 326,000 private-sector jobs were created. The Labor Department reported a much larger 703,000 increase. Forget the month-to-month differences between the ADP and Labor Department job reports. Both show a big increase in private-sector employment over the summer — more than 2 million new jobs. It’s no surprise. Companies have a record number job openings to fill and they are trying to hire workers in anticipation that the latest coronavirus flareup will fade.
To be sure, delta has spurred companies to exercise more caution, especially restaurants and other businesses that deal face to face to customers. And it’s caused some consumers to avoid large crowds again.
That probably helps explains the somewhat slow in hiring in August, a notoriously fickle month to assess because so many people go on vacation..Yet by and large, the economy has held up well and it’s still growing at a fairly strong pace.