“Energy and manufacturing remain blemishes on the job market, but other sectors continue to add strongly to payrolls”, he added. Companies in professional/business services added 59,000 jobs and construction companies added 27,000 positions.
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January jobs numbers from ADP were revised down 12K to 193K, but the good news is the 200K+ average over the past 2 months (not including government jobs) is another arrow in the quiver of a sound US economy.
Large businesses added 76,000 jobs. The prior month was revised to 193,000 from 205,000, and the consensus from Bloomberg for February was 185,000 (with a range of 165,000 to 205,000).
Employment is expected to increase by about 190,000 jobs in February following the addition of 151,000 jobs in January. Meanwhile, manufacturing lost 9,000 jobs, the second largest drop in five years, as the sector continues to be plagued by a slowdown. The ADP beat forecasts in both the previous reports in 2016.
“Despite the turmoil in the global financial markets, the American job machine remains in high gear”, said Mark Zandi, chief economist of Moody’s Analytics, which produces the report with ADP.
Small businesses with fewer than 50 employees added 76,000 jobs in February, while medium-sized companies with between 50 and 499 employees added 62,000. New private-sector jobs rose 214K in February according to ADP, well ahead of the 185K expected. The number of unemployed persons in the country was 7.8K last month, which actually means economists consider we are near “full employment”.
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Capital Economics also dismissed the relationship between the ADP survey and the official non-farm payroll figures as “far from perfect” but acknowledged that “at the margin the ADP report suggests the balance of risks to our estimate that non-farm payrolls increased by 180,000 last month probably now lies on the upside”.
