Fed loses access to separate employment data from third-party provider

Nick Timiraos, a prominent Fed spokesperson, wrote that Federal Reserve officials recently lost access to third-party employment data. Since 2018, payroll processor ADP has provided the Fed with a dataset containing anonymous employment and income information, covering 20% ​​of the US private sector workforce. The Fed typically receives this data with a delay of approximately one week, making it a timely and comprehensive measure of labor market conditions. Sources familiar with the matter revealed that ADP stopped providing the Fed with this data after Fed Governor Waller's speech in late August, drawing public attention to the Fed's long-standing use of ADP employment data. The specific reasons for this change are unclear. Waller cited the ADP data in a footnote accompanying his speech, further emphasizing his concerns about a slowing labor market. The footnote noted that preliminary estimates showed a continued deterioration in hiring over the summer, and that the data covered a period beyond the coverage of the latest government data. (Jinshi)