April was the low month for job growth this year, or so says today's employment report from payroll-processing firm ADP and their partner Moody's Analytics. April's job numbers were initially reported as 119,000 added nationwide, but that has been revised down to 113,000—which was the weakest job growth since September 2012. May's numbers came in better, at 135,000 jobs added. (That is still below the average of 156,000 jobs added per month, seen during the first quarter of 2013.) Next month, we'll see if this bounce off the spring bottom is a temporary blip, or part of a larger, and longer, trend.
Construction added 5,000 jobs in May. This was lower than the 8,000 jobs added in April (which was, in turn, revised down from the 15,000 added that had been initially reported last month). Manufacturing lost 6,000 jobs, making the goods-producing sectors a mild drag on the economy's growth, losing 3,000 jobs overall in May.
Professional and business services, a very broad field which likely includes all architects and engineers, added 42,000 jobs. This was way up from last month's 20,000 jobs added, and even higher than the 39,000 added (in initial reports) for March. In total, the service sector added 138,000 jobs in May.
ADP and Moody’s report does not break down the data in as detailed a way as does the U.S. Department of Labor’s Bureau of Labor Statistics in its monthly report (due to be released this Friday, June 7), so the analogous Architecture and Engineering Services category can’t be plumbed for a comparison. (See last month’s federal jobs report story for more.) We'll have to wait till Friday to learn more about the trends that are directly affecting architects.
