ADP: 697k Jobs Lost In February, Official BLS Jobs Report Friday

Today, ADP, a provider of payroll services to more than 24 million Americans employed in the private sector, released their monthly jobs data which showed that the economy lost 697,000 jobs in February. The expectations were for a loss of 630,000 jobs. ADP reports were way off most of 2008 relative to the official government jobs report produced by the Bureau of Labor Statistics. For example, November ADP showed -250,000 jobsthen a few days later November BLS showed -533,000 jobs.

But so far in 2009, the ADP and BLS stats have matched up more closely. In December, ADP showed -693k jobs and BLS showed -524k jobs. In January, ADP showed -522k and BLS showed -598k jobs. The jobs report has a large impact on markets, and mortgage rates always move on this report since it’s such a broad measure of the economy, covering consumer strength, unemployment and wage inflation.