In what could very well be the only jobs you’ll see this week, due to the shutdown of the federal government over the fight over passage of a continuing resolution bill, payroll firm ADP and its partner Moody’s Analytics have released their monthly employment report. According to this duo, the economy added 166,000 jobs in September, under the mark of 180,000 that was expected.
August’s initial reporting of 176,000 jobs added was revised down to 159,000 jobs added. Both were disappointments, but no lower than we’ve seen for most of 2013. Even with today’s disappointing return, the September jobs numbers are the fourth highest of 2013, and August’s revised numbers the sixth highest.
The construction industry added 16,000 jobs in September, better than the 4,000 initially reported in August but short of job gains at the beginning of the summer. Manufacturing continues to limp very slowly along, adding 1,000 jobs in September. And professional services (in which architects and engineers would fall) gained 27,000 jobs. This was half of what the gains were for the sector in August, and well below what we’ve been seeing.
In all, a disappointing, but certainly not horrifying, jobs report. We will get confirmation or disagreement from the Bureau of Labor Statistics in time, of course, once the latest brouhaha in the Capitol calms down and government economists return to work. We just don’t yet know when that will be.
