Economics

Here's Why ADP Says Its Jobs Numbers Were So Different From the Government's

Hard to distinguish permanent from temporary layoffs
‘A really tumultuous labor market,’ says ADP’s Richardson

ADP Chief Economist Nela Richardson explains why there is such a big difference in the ADP’s and the Labor Department’s jobs numbers. She’s on Quicktake with the University of Rochester’s Dean Sevin Yeltekin. Source: Bloomberg

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By Vildana Hajric and Tim Stenovec

October 8, 2021 at 7:02 PM UTC

This article is for subscribers only.

On Wednesday, ADP Research Institute said U.S. companies had added 568,000 jobs last month. On Friday, a Labor Department report showed they’d added 317,000.

The gap -- a difference of 251,000 between the two data points -- is attributable to a miss in the leisure and hospitality sector, according to ADP Chief Economist Nela Richardson. Her firm saw the sector continuing to lead the jobs recovery, and though it did play a role in the government report, it wasn’t as great as what she had expected.