market review-US 20080707

GLOBAL ECONOMICS:US JUN-08 ADP EMPLOYMENT, NON-FARMPAYROLLS REPORTS

ADP Employment Report data showed that the non-farmprivate sector in the US shed a total of 79,000 workers inthe month of Jun-08. The total was derived from a sum ofthe loss of 76,000 workers in Goods Producing Industries(including 34,000 in the Construction industry), the loss of3,000 workers amongst Service Providers, made up of theloss of 3,000 jobs at Financial Services companies. InMay, ADP had reported a revised gain of 25,000 jobs.Feb-08 was the most recent month that the US privatesector had shed jobs. It had also been the first monthsince Jun-03 that net job losses were reported.

Automatic Data Processing (ADP) is a business processoutsourcing organisation that maintains payrolls for morethan 600,000 businesses in the US.

The ADP data are in rough alignment with the Bureau ofLabor Statistics Jun-08 Non-Farm Payrolls data whichclocked in at a loss of 62,000 jobs, unchanged from theMay-08 figure. The Bureau reports that the US economyhas been shedding jobs since the month of Oct-07.

The main difference between the 2 time series is thatBureau’s Non-Farm Payrolls data also cover public sectorjobs data and are hence more comprehensive.