Most forecasts expect good U.S. job growth
Expectations generally point to a September uptick in the national jobs report coming Friday.
Payroll processing company ADP said Wednesday that it shows an addition of 213,000 jobs last month, a better number than the 202,000 it recorded in August.
A FactSet survey of economists predicted a September net growth of 215,000 jobs.
A Bloomberg consensus report from economists, due out today, is expected to show a similar median outlook.
And Gallup’s Job Creation Index said its survey of workers, who were asked to report on hiring in their workplaces, reached a six-year high in September. For the third consecutive month — and only the third time since 2008 — workers were slightly more likely to say their employers were hiring than to say there were no staff additions or layoff changes.
Combined, the outlooks indicate an improvement over the disappointing 142,000 jobs added in August, according to the previous U.S. Department of Labor report.
The national jobless rate, 6.1 percent in August, is likely to remain the same, according to the FactSet survey. The number of unemployed job hunters receiving jobless benefits is near a seven-year low.
One prominent indicator, though, indicated a September slowdown in job openings. Job vacancies advertised online fell by 137,200 from August, according to the Conference Board’s Help Wanted OnLine Data Series.
The Conference Board report said jobs advertised online for the Kansas City area fell by 800 to 37,700 from August to September.
Meanwhile, the Associated General Contractors of America said Kansas City, Kan., was one of 220 U.S. metro areas that had gained employment in the construction industry. August 2014 showed 1,600 more construction jobs in Kansas City, Kan., compared with a year earlier. Kansas City, Mo., showed a comparative year-to-year drop of 1,500 construction jobs.
Another positive outlook came from the Society for Human Resource Management, which said human resource professionals have “their highest level of faith in the U.S. labor market in more than five years.”
Two in five respondents to the human resource survey said their organizations are adding jobs in the second half of 2014. Half of the respondents said their organizations had added jobs in the first half of the year.
To reach Diane Stafford, call 816-234-4359 or send email to stafford@kcstar.com.
Metro area shows stable labor market numbers
The Kansas City area’s unemployment rate dropped a tiny 0.01 percent from July to settle at 6 percent in August, the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics reported today. On a comparable nonseasonally adjusted basis, the national rate was 6.3 percent in August.
Total nonfarm employment in the metro area grew by 5,100 jobs, or 0.5 percent from August 2013 to August 2014, a lower rate than the national gain of 1.8 percent.
The labor bureau said there were 1,014,200 payroll employees in the Kansas City area in August.
The Missouri side, with 55 percent of the area’s workforce, accounted for more than two-thirds of the area’s employment growth from August 2013 to August 2014, adding 3,500 jobs. The Kansas side, with 45 percent of the area’s workforce, gained 1,600 jobs over the 12 months.
Source: U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics
This story was originally published October 1, 2014 at 3:52 PM with the headline "Most forecasts expect good U.S. job growth."