ADP April 2012 Jobs Report Shows Trend Decline, March New Factory Orders Fall:
U.S. Jobs Growth Gets Worse
ADP said the U.S. added less jobs in the month of April. ADP’s private survey of U.S. businesses showed a sharply reduced hiring rate last month even with warmer than usual weather. ADP said today that businesses increased hiring by adding only 119,000 jobs in April which was much lower than the 201,000 total jobs added in the prior month.
The increase in new jobs added was the fewest in seven months for ADP’s closely watch employment reading and tomorrow’s initial jobless claims data may also show weakness.
Friday’s unemployment number will be a key indicator about the economic strength of the U.S. and most numbers are roughly the same as the data ADP reported today within the 120,000 -160,000 range. Most headlines related to unemployment for the last few weeks have been negative – see more here.
March New Factory Orders Decline
In other news, new orders for U.S. factory goods in March declined. The Commerce Department said today that orders for manufactured goods dropped 1.5 percent taking away all the gains from the month of February 2012 when manufacturing orders increased by 1.1 percent.
This data also confirms the U.S. may be growing slower than earlier anticipated and many economists expect some action from the Fed before the end of the summer. Growing concerns about Europe as well as China haven’t abated and the U.S. could be slipping further into a longer recovery. The U.S. economy needs a catalyst to move faster or uncertainty about monetary and fiscal policy may overwhelm investors medium run.
