U.S. stock index futures came off their highs Friday following the monthly government employment report that showed non-farm payrolls rose less than expected, but still remained in positive territory amid expectations that the weak data would prompt further easing from the Federal Reserve.

Non-farm payrolls gained only 96,000 in August, missing expectations for an increase of 125,000, according to the Labor Department. The unemployment rate declined to 8.1 percent from 8.3 percent, but the drop is largely attributed to people giving up looking for work.

“This number was a bit of a surprise, especially after the strong ADP report that came in far above expectations [on Thursday],” said Joe Bell, senior equities analyst at Schaeffer’s Investment Research. “You still have a group of market participants thinking that bad market data’s not all that bad because the Fed may step in.”

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Stocks surged on Thursday, with the SP 500 closing at its highest since 2008, fueled by the ECB’s announcement it will purchases bonds of struggling euro zone countries to bring down their borrowing costs.

ECB President Mario Draghi said the program could potentially allow unlimited short-term bond purchases, but strict conditions would apply.

Futures were also buoyed after China gave the green light for 60 infrastructure projects to boost economic growth. Analysts say the new projects will total more than $157 billion, or 2.1 percent of the nation’s economy.

Intel
[INTC 
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] slumped after the chipmaker cut its third-quarter revenue forecast, citing softer demand due to the weak macroeconomic environment.

Apple
[AAPL 
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] has lowered its orders for memory chips for its new iPhone from its main supplier Samsung, as it seeks to diversify its supply lines, according to a source with direct knowledge of the matter.

Lululemon
[LULU 
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] gained after the yoga-apparel retailer posted higher earnings and lifted its full-year profit and revenue outlook.

—By CNBC’s JeeYeon Park (Follow JeeYeon on Twitter: @JeeYeonParkCNBC)

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ROSELAND, NJ–(Marketwire -09/06/12)-
Private-sector employment increased by 201,000 from July to August on a seasonally adjusted basis, according to the latest ADP National Employment Report® released today. The ADP National Employment Report, created by Automatic Data Processing, Inc. (ADP®), in partnership with Macroeconomic Advisers, LLC, is derived from actual payroll data and measures the change in total nonfarm private employment each month. The estimated gain from June to July was revised up from the initial estimate of 163,000 to 173,000.

 
U.S. Nonfarm Private Employment Highlights -- August 2012 Report:

 --    Total employment:                   +201,000

 --    Small businesses:*                  +99,000
 --    Medium businesses:**                +86,000
 --    Large businesses:***                +16,000

 --    Goods-producing sector:             +16,000

 --    Service-providing sector:           +185,000

 Addendum:
 --    Manufacturing industry:             + 3,000

 * Small businesses represent payrolls with 1-49 employees
 ** Medium businesses represent payrolls with 50-499 employees
 *** Large businesses represent payrolls with more than 499 employees
 Note: All data included in the ADP National Employment Report is based on
        size of payroll. In some cases, small and medium-size payrolls
        belong to businesses employing more workers than indicated by the
        size grouping.

According to today’s ADP National Employment Report, employment in the nonfarm private business sector rose 201,000 from July to August on a seasonally adjusted basis. Employment in the private, service-providing sector expanded 185,000 in August, up from 156,000 in July. Employment in the private, goods-producing sector added 16,000 jobs in August, while manufacturing employment rose 3,000, following an increase of 6,000 in July. Construction employment rose for the third consecutive month, adding 10,000 jobs, marking the best reading since March. The financial services sector added 8,000 jobs from July to August, marking the thirteenth consecutive monthly gain.

Carlos A. Rodriguez, president and chief executive officer of ADP, said: “According to this month’s ADP National Employment Report, the U.S. economy added 201,000 jobs in August, the largest increase in five months. The improvement in job creation this month is encouraging and we hope it continues across all sectors of the U.S. economy.”

According to Joel Prakken, chairman of Macroeconomic Advisers, LLC, “The August increase of 201,000, following a solid gain in July, supports the notion that the underlying trend in hiring has picked back up after slowing sharply during the spring. The August increase was well above the consensus forecast for today’s release and for the official jobs number due out Friday from The Bureau of Labor Statistics.”

Prakken added: “The gain in private employment in August is strong enough to suggest that the national unemployment rate may have declined. Today’s estimate, if matched by a similar reading on employment from the BLS on Friday, will alleviate concerns that the economy has slipped into a downturn.”

Employment levels among medium-sized payrolls — those with 50 to 499 workers — rose by 86,000, while employment on large payrolls — those with 500 or more workers — increased by 16,000 jobs in August.

The matched sample used to develop the ADP National Employment Report was derived from ADP data, which, during 2011, averaged about 344,000 U.S. business clients and represented over 21 million U.S. employees. This approximately represents the size of the matched sample used this month.

Small Business Highlights — August Report:
Due to the important contribution small businesses make to economic growth, employment data that is specific to businesses with fewer than 50 employees is reported in the ADP Small Business Report® each month. The ADP Small Business Report is a subset of the ADP National Employment Report.*

Employment on small payrolls — those with up to 49 workers — rose 99,000 in August.

• Total nonfarm private small business employment: 99,000 jobs created
  • Goods-producing sector gained 7,000 jobs
  • Service-providing sector added 92,000 jobs

* All size data included in the ADP National Employment Report is based on size of payroll. In some cases, small and medium-size payrolls belong to businesses employing more workers than indicated by the size grouping.

Additional information about small business employment, including charts on monthly job growth and employment levels, along with historical data, is available at http://www.smallbusinessreport.adp.com.

To obtain additional information about the ADP National Employment Report, including additional charts, supporting data and the schedule of future release dates, or to subscribe to the monthly email alerts and RSS feeds, please visit www.ADPemploymentreport.com.

The September 2012 ADP National Employment Report will be released at 8:15 AM ET on Wednesday, October 3, 2012.

About the ADP National Employment Report®
The ADP National Employment Report®, sponsored by ADP®, was developed and is maintained by Macroeconomic Advisers, LLC. It is a measure of employment derived from an anonymous subset of roughly 500,000 U.S. business clients. During 2011, this subset averaged about 344,000 U.S. business clients and represented over 21 million U.S. employees working in all private industrial sectors. The ADP Small Business Report is a monthly estimate of private nonfarm employment among companies in the United States with 1-49 employees and is a subset of the ADP National Employment Report. The data for both reports is collected for pay periods that can be interpolated to include the week of the 12th of each month, and processed with statistical methodologies similar to those used by the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics to compute employment from its monthly survey of establishments. Due to this processing, this subset is modified to make it indicative of national employment levels; therefore, the resulting employment changes computed for the ADP National Employment Report are not representative of changes in ADP’s total base of U.S. business clients.

For a description of the underlying data and the statistical properties of the series, please see “ADP National Employment Report: Development Methodology” at http://ADPemploymentreport.com/methodology.aspx.

About ADP
Automatic Data Processing, Inc. (ADP), with more than $10 billion in revenues and approximately 600,000 clients, is one of the world’s largest providers of business outsourcing solutions. Leveraging over 60 years of experience, ADP offers a wide range of human resource, payroll, tax and benefits administration solutions from a single source. ADP’s easy-to-use solutions for employers provide superior value to companies of all types and sizes. ADP is also a leading provider of integrated computing solutions to auto, truck, motorcycle, marine, recreational vehicle, and heavy equipment dealers throughout the world. For more information about ADP or to contact a local ADP sales office, reach us at 1.800.225.5237 or visit the company’s website at www.ADP.com.

About Macroeconomic Advisers, LLC
Macroeconomic Advisers, LLC (MA) has been the most trusted source for U.S. macroeconomic forecasts and commentary, monetary and fiscal policy analysis, and econometric modeling for 25 years. MA’s clients include leading financial service firms, nonfinancial corporations, key policymaking agencies of the U.S. government, as well as State and Foreign Government agencies. Additional information on Macroeconomic Advisers, LLC is available on the company’s website, www.MacroAdvisers.com.

The ADP logo, ADP, ADP National Employment Report, and ADP Small Business Report are registered trademarks of ADP, Inc.

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• U.S. Private-Sector Employment Increased by 162,000 Jobs in September, According to ADP National Employment Report
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