Ahead of this morning’s ADP National Employment Report, economists predicted the addition to private payrolls of 225,000 jobs. The report, which is jointly produced by Moody’s Analytics and payroll processor ADP, showed higher gains than expected — 241,000 jobs in all. In addition, last month‘s payrolls were adjusted upward from 208,000 jobs to 227,000 jobs.
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“The job market continues to power forward,” said Mark Zandi, chief economist at Moody’s Analytics Inc., in a statement. “Businesses across all industries and sizes are adding to payrolls.”
Small businesses (1-49 employees) added the most jobs with 106,000. Medium-sized businesses (50-499 employees) added 70,000 jobs, and large businesses (500-plus employees) added 66,000 employees.
In terms of industry growth, professional and business services led gains with 69,000 jobs added, followed by trade, transportation, and utilities with 44,000 jobs. Construction added 23,000 jobs and manufacturing added 26,000 jobs.
“Sustained gains in hiring will probably help lay the groundwork for a pickup in wages,” writes Shobhana Chandra at Bloomberg. “Higher earnings, combined with the cheapest fuel costs since 2009, will provide the wherewithal for consumers to increase their spending, which accounts for about 70 percent of the economy.”
The PayScale Index, which forecasts U.S. wage growth based on a predictive model incorporating the Consumer Price Index and unemployment rates, projected a 0.3 growth in wages for the fourth quarter 2014.
Friday’s report from the Labor Department is expected to shows gains of 240,000 jobs across the public and private sectors, according to economists polled by Reuters, after November’s blockbuster report showing the addition of 321,000 jobs.
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