Segments From this episode
Encouraging jobs data on the eve of the government's May report
We’re one day away from the official government report on hiring and unemployment for May, but we’ve got other data to lookt at first: the ADP numbers on private payrolls for last month and the weekly jobless claims. The ADP numbers are “certainly encouraging,” said Diane Swonk, chief economist at Grant Thornton, as they show about 1 million jobs added. They may not necessarily match the employment numbers we get tomorrow, so it’s best to be cautious, but “the good news is we’ve seen a slew of data that suggests that momentum is shifting regarding hiring and people accepting jobs,” Swonk said. Also, turning to weekly jobless claims, we learned the number of people signing up for first-time unemployment benefits dropped for the fifth straight week. “We’re still high, and there are some workers that are just losing their extensions and benefits. But the good news is the initial claims are coming down,” Swonk said.
