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ADP Employment Far Stronger Than Expected, Although Largest Firms Cut Back

US DATA
  • ADP employment came in far stronger than expected in May, at 278k (cons 170k) after a minimally downward revised 291k (initial 296k) in April.
  • With the current revision cycle, ADP averaged a 49k monthly overshoot of private payrolls through Feb-Apr but there’s no clear rule of thumb here - the prior three months saw an average miss of -76k courtesy of a huge -234k in January when ADP was overly affected by poor California weather.
  • It’s this well-known lack of consistent relationship that means the surprise can’t be taken too strongly but it nevertheless likely adds upside risk to private payrolls expectations of 164k.
  • Within the details, large firms (500+ employees) saw a heavy -106k decline but were offset by large increases in most other categories. The firm-size data can be revised quite notably but this is the largest monthly decline since Apr/May’20. It’s in strong contrast to smallest firms (1-19 employees) rising 116k for their strongest since Sep’21.

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