ADP: Private Payrolls Added 227,000 Jobs in October

Private-sector employers added 227,000 jobs last month, according to the ADP National Employment Report, which was released this morning. The tally exceeded economists’ predictions by 49,000 jobs.

“The job market bounced back strongly last month despite being hit by back-to-back hurricanes,” said Mark Zandi, chief economist of Moody’s Analytics, in a statement. Moody’s produces the report with ADP. “Testimonial to the robust employment picture is the broad-based gains in jobs across industries. The only blemish is the struggles small businesses are having filling open job positions.”

Small businesses added 29,000 jobs last month – about a third as many as medium-sized and large businesses added. (Employers with 50 to 499 workers added 96,000 jobs, while those with 500 or more employees added 102,000 jobs.)

Why the struggle to add workers? A “significant shortage in skilled talent,” according to Ahu Yildirmaz, vice president and co-head of the ADP Research Institute.

Where Jobs Are Growing

“We saw significant gains across all industries with trade and leisure and hospitality leading the way,” said Yildirmaz. “We continue to see larger employers benefit in this environment as they are more apt to provide the competitive wages and strong benefits employees desire.”

The following industries added jobs last month:

• Trade/transportation/utilities (+61,000 jobs)
• Leisure/hospitality (+40,000 jobs)
• Professional/business services (+36,000 jobs)
• Health care/social assistance (+31,000 jobs)
• Construction (+17,000 jobs)
• Manufacturing (+17,000 jobs)
• Financial activities (+4,000 jobs)
• Information (+4,000 jobs)
• Natural resources/mining (+4,000 jobs)

Friday’s report from the Labor Department will include the unemployment rate as well as wage growth data. The PayScale Index, which measures the change in wages for employed U.S. workers, showed that wages declined slightly (-0.1 percent growth) between Q2 and Q3 2018.

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