U.S. private employers added the fewest number of workers in more than two years in May, but the data is probably not a true reflection of the labor market, which is gradually easing amid economic uncertainty over the Trump administration's tariffs. Private payrolls increased by only 37,000 jobs last month, the smallest gain since March 2023, after a downwardly revised rise of 60,000 in April, the ADP National Employment Report showed on Wednesday. Economists polled by Reuters had forecast private employment would advance by 110,000 following a previously reported increase of 62,000 in April.
The ADP report, jointly developed with the Stanford Digital Economy Lab, was published ahead of the more comprehensive employment report for May that is due to be released on Friday by the Labor Department's Bureau of Labor Statistics. There is no correlation between the ADP and BLS employment reports. Government data on Tuesday showed there were 1.03 job openings for every unemployed person in April, little changed from March. "As usual, we suggest ignoring the message from the ADP employment report, mostly because it has had a very poor track record in recent years," said Oliver Allen, senior U.S. economist at Pantheon Macroeconomics.
Source: Reuters
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