Private sector employment increased by 213,000 jobs Opens a New Window. in January, according to the ADP National Employment report Opens a New Window. , surpassing Wall Street Opens a New Window. ’s expectations of 178,000 jobs, despite a 35-day partial government shutdown that experts believed could take a toll on small business Opens a New Window. .
“The job market weathered the government shutdown well,” Mark Zandi, the chief economist of Moody’s, said. “Despite the severe disruptions, businesses continued to add aggressively to their payrolls. As long as businesses hire strongly the economic expansion will continue on.”
The services-providing sector added the most jobs, at145,000, followed by services-providing at 68,000.
“The labor market has continued its pattern of strong growth with little sign of a slowdown in sight,“ Ahu Yildirmaz, vice president and co-head of the ADP Research Institute, said in a statement. “We saw significant growth in nearly all industries.”
In December, the private sector added a whopping 271,000 jobs — soaring past analysts’ expectations of 178,000. Manufacturing, meanwhile, added the most jobs in more than four years.
On Friday, the Labor Department will release its highly anticipated January jobs report, which will offer an in-depth look at the labor market, including job additions, the unemployment rate, the labor participation rate and wage growth. Analysts expect the U.S. economy will likely add 166,000 jobs, according to economists surveyed by Refinitiv, down sharply from December’s much larger-than-expected addition of 321,000.
