It appears that August will continue the steady job growth seen over the last couple of months. ADP and their partner, Moody's Analytics, released their August employment report today, which showed that the economy added 176,000 jobs last month. This was down from July's initially reported 200,000, but is still higher than the lull we saw this past spring.
July's numbers were also revised down by 2,000 jobs (to 198,000 jobs added), making last month now tied with February as the best month of 2013 for the economy and the labor market. This reconciles ADP's July numbers a little with the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics' (BLS) July report, which showed the economy added 162,000 jobs that month. ADP's June numbers were also revised down—from 198,000 to 190,000.
Construction workers had their weakest month of the summer. While the sector did add jobs in August, it only added 4,000—whereas it had added 22,000 in July and 21,000 in June. This makes August one of the three weakest months for the construction sector in 2013. Manufacturing, on the other hand, added 5,000 jobs in August. This was the second best month of the year for the manufacturing sector, and the best since February.
Professional and business services, a large group that likely includes architects and engineers, kept chugging along with another 50,000 jobs added, topping the 49,000 jobs added in July and 40,000 in June. ADP and Moody's doesn't break out architectural and engineering services the way that the BLS does, so we'll see if a high number like this for ADP's professional services sector predicts more good news for architects and engineers in the BLS August report, due out tomorrow morning.
