Payroll Employment at the Weekly Frequency

Nontraditional data can provide critical economic insights in real time. We document the development of weekly employment indexes based on microdata from the payroll processor ADP. These data have provided insights into labor market developments in the fast-moving pandemic environment of recent years, as well as in more quiescent periods. We describe processes for weighting and benchmarking, seasonally adjusting weekly data, and ultimately combining the signals from ADP and official data. Finally, we show how the weekly employment indexes have fared during the pandemic jobs recovery, focusing on revisions to official data for the second half of 2021.