By Kathleen Madigan
Private businesses in April added fewer employees than expected
by economists as factories laid off workers, according to a tally
of private-sector hiring released Wednesday.
Private-sector jobs in the U.S. increased by 119,000 last 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 155,000 private jobs. The March employment
increase was revised to 131,000 from 158,000 reported a month
ago.
According to ADP, firms employing between 1-49 workers increased
jobs by 50,000 in April. Medium-sized businesses with payrolls of
50-499 workers hired 26,000 new employees. Large firms, businesses
with 500 or more employees, added 43,000 positions.
Service-sector jobs increased by 113,000 in April, and factory
jobs declined by 10,000 positions.
ADP reports its tally of private sector hiring ahead of the
Bureau of Labor Statistics' employment situation report. The BLS
report counts both private and government payroll slots.
The median forecast of economists calls for nonfarm payrolls to
increase 148,000.
The ADP report comes out on the second day of a policy meeting
at the Federal Reserve. With the Fed focused on promoting
employment growth, the weak ADP number may worry central bankers
that not enough is being done to promote hiring.
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 Corporation.
Another job-related release out Wednesday also gave a low job
estimate for April.
TrimTabs Investment Research projects a mere 67,000 jobs were
added in last month.
TrimTabs says its estimate is not designed to predict the
initial figure that the BLS reports every month. Rather, it is
designed to provide "the most accurate estimate of employment
change as possible based on analysis of real-time income tax
withholdings to the U.S. Treasury."
Write to Kathleen Madigan at kathleen.madigan@dowjones.com