This Is Probably the Only Jobs Report You'll See For Awhile

U.S. businesses reportedly added 166,000 jobs in September, according to a survey released Wednesday by private payroll company ADP.

The ADP report said private employers added only 159,000 jobs in August and 161,000 in July, both lower than originally predicted.

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The economy expanded at a rate of two percent in the third quarter (July to September), down from Q2’s rate of 2.5 percent, and hiring slowed. The data obviously suggests that the economy is moving along at a sluggish pace and that we shouldn’t expect a sudden increase in hiring.

Employers have added only 155,000 jobs a month in the four months through August, the Associated Press noted. That's a decrease from the average 205,000 jobs added per month in the first quarter.

"The job market appears to have softened in recent months," said Mark Zandi, chief economist at Moody's Analytics. "While job growth has slowed, there remains a general resilience in the market. Job creation continues to be consistent with a slowly declining unemployment rate."

Construction firms added roughly 16,000 jobs in September. Manufacturers, on the other hand, added just 1,000 and have consistently cut jobs through the first nine months of the year, according to ADP.

Financial services have cut roughly 4,000 jobs, according to the ADP report, which only covers private sector hiring.

But why is TheBlaze reporting on the unemployment situation two days early? And why is TheBlaze using ADP’s figures?

Simple: The U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics said Tuesday it wouldn’t release the September unemployment report until Congress ends the partial government shutdown.

The BLS was scheduled to release the latest unemployment numbers Friday. But considering that Congress most likely won’t have a solution figured out by then, it looks like we’re going to end the week without an official jobs report.

So we’re going to have to rely on ADP’s monthly jobs report (although their numbers rarely seem to match up with the official government data).

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The Associated Press contributed to this report.

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