The numbers: Private-sector employers added 2.37 million jobs in June, Automatic Data Processing Inc. reported Wednesday. Economists surveyed by Econoday expected a gain of 3.5 million.
What happened: Small employers added 937,000 jobs in June. Midsize companies added 559,000 jobs. And large businesses added 873,000. The services sector experienced a large gain in June, adding 1.9 million jobs.
Big picture: The ADP data hasn’t lined up with the government data since the pandemic began in March, though over a longer time frame the two data sets trend in the same direction. For instance, last month ADP reported 2.76 million in job losses, while the government reported net gains of 3.1 million jobs. On Wednesday, ADP revised its May decline to show a gain of 3.1 million jobs.
Click here to see the full report from Greg Robb of MarketWatch.com
Economists surveyed by MarketWatch expect a gain of 3.9 million jobs in June, with the unemployment rate improving, slightly to 13% from 13.3% in May. There is some concern that June could be a high-water mark as many states were slowing down activity late in the month due to a resurgence in coronavirus cases.