Most economists and forecasters are totally clueless. I don’t spend a lot of time on economic statistics and forecasts except to figure how they may play out in the market place compared to “expectations”. Today’s ADP release is a perfect example. I figured the expectation was going to be on the high side because what most analysts missed was the extra benefit dynamic that was still playing out. The clueless media idiots are blaming it on the Delta variant. The 27 or so Red states had removed the extra benefits in June and July for the most part. The blue states were mostly waiting until this Sat. Sept. 6th to let them expire. The vast majority of people still collecting, largely in the blue states, weren’t going to go looking for jobs in August when they could continue their paid vacations. They are going to enjoy being paid and in many cases overpaid to sit on the beach somewhere. It is no surprise that less jobs would have been filled then the two previous months when the Red state slackers who already lost those benefits went back to work. The same will begin to happen in the Blue states in September and probably till year end when the holiday crunch takes place and Covid hopefully winds down. https://finance.yahoo.com/news/adp-private-payrolls-august-2021-employment-labor-market-coronavirus-121701411.html