What To Expect From Thursday's Jobs Number

The Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) will report June's employment numbers on Thursday at 8:30 a.m. EST.According to Bloomberg, the consensus estimate is for an increase of 230,000 non-farm payroll jobs in June. The estimates range between 202,000 and 252,000, with the expectation for unemployment rate to move down slightly to 5.4 percent.May's BLS jobs report showed 280,000 jobs added with the unemployment rate at 5.5 percent. The ADP Employment report, which focuses more on private employment, came out on Wednesday, showing a private sector increase of 237,000 jobs in June. This handily beat consensus estimates of 220,000 job growth. and was an improvement from May's revised number of 203,000.Following the ADP jobs report, Mark Zandi, chief economist of Moody's Analytics, said, "The U.S. job machine remains in high gear. The current robust pace of job growth is double that needed to absorb the growth in the working age population. The only blemish in the job market is the loss of jobs in the energy sector. Most encouraging is the healthy rate of job growth among the nation's smallest companies." "June job numbers came in at their highest level since December 2014," said Carlos Rodriguez, president and chief executive officer of ADP. "Small businesses continue to lead the way adding over half of the total jobs this month."