US businesses add 185000 workers in July

The services sector added the lion’s share of positions with 178,000 new jobs. The government will release the July figures on Friday. Intuit, creator of QuickBooks and similar software suites, released their report, which aligned with ADP’s but added that businesses with fewer than 20 employees added a paltry 10,000 new positions last month.

Goods-producing industries, which include manufacturers and construction companies, increased headcount by 8,000 in July, according to the ADP report.

Economists polled by Reuters are looking for total U.S. employment to have grown by 223,000 jobs in July, matching June’s figure.

Companies with 500-999 employees added 17,000 jobs after adding 28,000 jobs in June. Manufacturing added 2,000 jobs after gaining 9,000 in June. Job gains were evenly distributed across small, mid-sized and large companies, and the service sector saw almost all the hiring.

What to believe? Side with the so-called nonmanufacturing index put out by the Institute for Supply Management.

Jobs were mostly created in large businesses.

July is also a very tricky month because of seasonal-adjustment difficulties, especially involving workers in education and manufacturing. “Of course the operative word here is ‘if.’ Consumer spending needs to be supported with job and income growth”.

The table below presents U.S. franchise employment growth over time, measuring current month growth, year-over-year changes, and the average monthly growth rate over the past 12 months.

Experts predict Department of Labor’s employment report will reflect jobless claims hitting an unbelievable 42-month low.

Aside from the numbers, Federal Reserve Governor Jerome Powell pushed back against more hawkish comments made Tuesday by fellow Committee member Dennis Lockhart. “I haven’t made any decisions about what I would support, and certainly the committee hasn’t”, Powell said.

Zandi said “everything should be in place for the first rate hike in September, because we’re approaching full employment pretty quickly”.