The ADP Employment report for August is out:

Nonfarm private employment decreased 298,000 from July to August 2009 on a seasonally adjusted basis. The estimated change of employment from June to July was revised by 11,000, from a decline of 371,000 to a decline of 360,000.

What is interesting are dueling MSM reports on the ADP statistics.

Bloomberg's title reads U.S. Economy: Companies Cut More Jobs Than Forecast in August. Pretty negative while Reuter's title is U.S. private job losses down, factory orders up.

The reason is analysts expected only 250,000 jobs lost for August, so the ADP reports shows analysts were off by 16%. (are they desperate for a V to the point of delusion?)

The big number (BLS) is out Friday for August unemployment.

There is also a decrease in estimated layoffs. Challenger, Gray & Christmas said layoffs declined by 21% in August.

Check out the ADP pdf for the 5 graphs of the employment sector breakdowns. Note the massive drop in construction jobs. Now the government is claiming they saved construction jobs. Now I hate to say this but is the government making sure those saved jobs go to legal residents, U.S. citizens? We all know construction was a heavy magnet for illegal labor.

Good Interesting news is manufacturing has it's smallest unemployment rate increase since July 2008. Although one must wonder if they simply ran out of people to fire.

Calculated Risk notes that ADP was only marginally useful in predicting the BLS unemployment numbers last month.