Crypto Market Snoozes Through ADP Payroll Shocker

The Omicron variant is behind a sharp decline in U.S. jobs in January, but markets are shrugging off the weak number.

Feb 2, 2022 at 3:44 p.m. UTC

Updated Feb 2, 2022 at 5:05 p.m. UTC

(Mario Tama/Getty Images)

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Wednesday’s ADP jobs report for January missed expectations by a mile, showing a loss of 301,000 jobs against expectations for a gain of 200,000.

ADP put the blame on the Omicron coronavirus variant for the first negative jobs figure since December 2020. The loss of 301,000 jobs in January is a particularly massive turnaround from December 2021’s 776,000 gain.
The leisure and hospitality industries accounted for more than half of January’s job losses, posting a decline of 154,000.
Stock, bond and crypto prices aren’t really responding, however, perhaps because the Biden White House had been prepping markets this week for some ugly job figures.
However, one bad report caused by a spike in COVID-19 cases isn't likely to push the Federal Reserve off of its plan to begin hiking interest rates in March. S&P 500 and Nasdaq stocks remain modestly in the green. The 10-year Treasury bond yield is down one basis point at 1.79%. Bitcoin has dipped a bit, now off 2% to $37,700, with ether lower by 3% to $2,680.
ADP's report is a warmup for Friday's government report on January payrolls. For the moment, economists continue to expect a gain of 150,000 jobs, down modestly from December’s 199,000 advance, and with the unemployment rate holding flat at 3.9%. For all of 2021, the U.S. added a whopping 6.4 million jobs, the best year on record, as the economy rebounded from the 2020 pandemic shutdown.

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