ADP and Moody’s Analytics released the National Employment Report showing a huge surge in employment numbers for May.
Private-sector employment increased by a seasonally adjusted 253,000 from April to May. This is up from last month’s increase of 211,000.
“May proved to be a very strong month for job growth,” said Ahu Yildirmaz, vice president and co-head of the ADP Research Institute. “Professional and business services had the strongest monthly increase since 2014.”
“This may be an indicator of broader strength in the workforce since these services are relied on by many industries,” Yildirmaz said.
The goods-producing sector is set to increase 48,000 in May. This is driven mainly by an increase in constructions jobs:
Natural resources and mining: Increase 3,000
Construction: Increase 37,000
Manufacturing: Increase 8,000
The service-providing sector is set to increase by 205,000 jobs, with changes in these areas:
Trade, transportation and utilities: Increase 58,000
Information: Decrease 8,000
Financial activities: Increase 7,000
Professional and business: 88,000
Education and health: 54,000
Leisure and hospitality: Decrease 11,000
Other services: Increase 15,000
“Job growth is rip-roaring,” Moody’s Analytics Chief Economist Mark Zandi said. “The current pace of job growth is nearly three times the rate necessary to absorb growth in the labor force. Increasingly, businesses’ No. 1 challenge will be a shortage of labor.”
This chart shows the history of ADP’s predictions since May of last year:
Click to Enlarge
(Source: ADP)
For comparison, here is a graph that shows the actual employment numbers from the Bureau of Labor Statistics.