Private-sector employers added 230,000 jobs last month, according to the newly released ADP National Employment Report. The tally far exceeded analysts’ expectations of 185,000 jobs added.
“The job market continues to power forward. Employment gains are broad-based across industries and company sizes,” said Mark Zandi, chief economist of Moody’s Analytics, which produces the report with ADP. “At the current pace of job creation, unemployment will fall into the low 3%’s by this time next year.”
Where Jobs Are Growing
“Both the goods and services sectors soared,” said Ahu Yildirmaz, vice president and co-head of the ADP Research Institute. “The professional and business services industry and construction served as key engines of growth. They added almost half of all new jobs this month.”
Professional and business services added 70,000 jobs last month, while construction added 34,000 jobs. Other growing industries included:
- Healthcare/social assistance (+37,000 jobs)
- Trade/transportation/utilities (+30,000 jobs)
- Leisure/hospitality (+16,000 jobs)
- Financial activities (+16,000 jobs)
- Manufacturing (+7,000 jobs)
- Natural resources/mining (+5,000 jobs)
Will Wages Rise?
Friday’s report from the Labor Department will provide information on how many jobs employers added to nonfarm payrolls, as well as the updated unemployment and wage growth numbers.
In August, wages reached a nine-year high, with yearly wage growth reaching 2.9 percent, per the Bureau of Labor Statistics. However, real wage growth — the value of workers’ pay with inflation — is considerably lower.
“In real terms, the increase is just over 1%,” writes Erik Sherman at Forbes. “As Jeffrey Pavlik noted on Forbes last month, the CPI hit 2.9% in July, which was a ten-year high. Inflation eats up real earnings.”
The PayScale Index, which tracks the change in wages for employed U.S. workers, shows that real wages are now worth 9.3 percent less than in 2006.
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