Breaking: ADP Employment Change plummets to -27,000 in March

Eren Sengezer FXStreet

Employment Change in the US private sector was -27,000 in March, first negative print since September 2017, following February's increase of 179,000 (revised from 183,000), the Automatic Data Processing (ADP) reported on Wednesday. This reading came in much better than the market expectation for a decline of 150,000.

Commenting on the data, "it is important to note that the ADP National Employment Report is based on the total number of payroll records for employees who were active on a company’s payroll through the 12th of the month," noted Ahu Yildirmaz, co-head of the ADP Research Institute.

"This is the same time period the Bureau of Labor and Statistics uses for their survey,” Yildirmaz added. “As such, the March NER does not fully reflect the most recent impact of COVID-19 on the employment situation, including unemployment claims reported on March 26, 2020.”

Market reaction

The US Dollar Index edged slightly higher after the data and was last seen adding 0.75% on the day at 99.70. Meanwhile, the S&P 500 futures, the DJIA futures and the Nasdaq futures were all erasing around 3% at the time of press.

ADP NFP Quick Analysis: It could be worse, it will be far worse, why the dollar may rise.

Only 27,000 private-sector jobs were lost in March according to ADP – much better than shedding 150,000 that was on the cards.

USD/JPY stuck in a range around mid-107.00s, moves little post-ADP.

The USD/JPY pair extended its sideways consolidative price action and remained confined in a narrow trading band around mid-107.00s post-US ADP report.

Author

Eren Sengezer

FXStreet

As an economist at heart, Eren Sengezer specializes in the assessment of the short-term and long-term impacts of macroeconomic data, central bank policies and political developments on financial assets.

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