Private businesses added new employees at a rapid clip in
January despite layoffs at the largest U.S. companies, according to
a tally of private-sector hiring released Wednesday.
Private-sector jobs in the U.S. increased by 192,000 this month,
according to a national employment report calculated by payroll
processor Automatic Data Processing Inc. (ADP) and forecasting firm
Moody's Analytics.
Economists surveyed by Dow Jones Newswires expected ADP to
report a gain of 165,000 private jobs. The December job gain was
revised down to 185,000 from 215,000 reported a month ago.
According to ADP, firms employing between one and 49 workers
increased jobs by 115,000 in January. Medium-sized businesses with
payrolls of 50 to 499 workers hired 79,000 new employees. But large
firms, businesses with 500 or more employees, cut 2,000
positions.
Service-sector jobs increased by 177,000 in January, but factory
jobs fell by 3,000 slots.
The ADP report comes out two days ahead of the Bureau of Labor
Statistics' employment situation report. Last month's strong ADP
report caused economists and investors to lift their expectations
for December payrolls, which include government jobs. Instead, the
BLS reported a modest 155,000 new jobs were created last month.
Given that the January ADP report came in above expectations,
some economists may change their Friday forecast. For now,
economists surveyed by Dow Jones Newswires expect total nonfarm
payrolls increased by 166,000 in January. This month's jobless rate
is projected to hold at 7.8%.
ADP, of Roseland, N.J., offers payroll processing, human
resource and benefit administration services to about 600,000
clients worldwide. Economics firm Moody's Analytics is a subsidiary
of Moody's Corp.
Another job-related release out Wednesday reported a smaller
number of jobs created this month. TrimTabs Investment Research
estimated between 135,000 and 155,000 jobs were added in
January.
TrimTabs analyzes daily income tax deposits to the U.S. Treasury
to calculate its job estimate. The company said it issued a range
of jobs this month because the "bonus shifting in advance of this
year's tax hikes makes it much tougher than usual to estimate
employment growth."
Write to Kathleen Madigan at kathleen.madigan@dowjones.com
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