The ADP jobs report missed the market forecast by a long shot, as only 89,000 jobs were added to the economy by the private sector. According to experts, the labor market is under pressure as the interest rates remain high, which ultimately puts pressure on US firms.
Overall, the job growth in the private sector was one of the lowest and only seen around 2-3 years ago. The market was expecting the ADP reading to be 153K during September, but the actual data was only 89,000.
In addition, the ADP figures for August were also revised from a value of 117K to around 180K. The revision has increased the number of new jobs during the month of August.
Most of the slowdown can be pinned on large US firms, which ended up removing any gains during the month of August.
According to ADP's chief economist, the jobs decline is further steepening at a fast pace. They also added that wages have also gone through a decline in the last 12-month period.
Furthermore, the wage growth on an annual basis has also slowed down and touched a low of 5.9% in September. Overall, that's the 12 consecutive months of slow growth in the US labor market.
One key thing to note here is that the ADP numbers can usually differ from the famous NFP report. So, if the NFP report shows a little better picture, it will not take the markets by surprise.
The ADP report comes at a time when an increase in job vacancies was seen during August. According to one analyst, the reading indicates that the US labor market is very resilient and thus will allow the Fed to keep higher rates.
Now, the market players are looking at the initial jobless claims by the US Labor Department along with the NFP report due on Friday.