According to Automatic Data Processing Inc.’s employment report, employment in the U.S. nonfarm private business sector rose 157,000 from May to June on a seasonally adjusted basis. The estimated advance in employment from April to May was revised down, but only slightly, to 36,000 from the initially reported 38,000. The today’s report estimates employment in the service-providing sector rose by 130,000 in June, nearly three times faster than in May, marking 18 consecutive months of employment gains. Employment in the goods-producing sector rose 27,000 in June, more than reversing the decline of 10,000 in May. Manufacturing employment rose 24,000 in June, which has seen growth in seven of the past eight months. However, the report said that employment in the construction industry dropped 4,000 in June. The total decrease in construction employment since its peak in January 2007 is 2,124,000.
In a separate report released today by the US Department of Labor showed, initial claims for week ended July 2, 2011, dropped 14,000 claims to seasonally adjusted figure of 418,000 claims. The 4-week moving average was 424,750, a decrease of 3,000 from the previous week's revised average of 427,750. The four-week average is seen as a more accurate a barometer of labor trends because it smoothes out week-to-week volatility in the data. The number of people who received unemployment checks from the government for the week ended June 25, 2011, also fell to a seasonally adjusted figure of 3.68 million, a decrease of 43,000 from previous week’s revised level of 3.72 million. The 4-week moving average was 3,705,250, a decrease of 3,750 from the preceding week's revised average of 3,709,000.
