U.S. Private Sector Job Creation Blows Away Consensus in January

The ADP National Employment Report finds U.S. private sector job creation blew away the 195,000 consensus forecast, adding 235,000 payrolls in January.

“We’ve kicked off the year with another month of unyielding job gains,” said Ahu Yildirmaz, vice president and co-head of the ADP Research Institute. “Service providers were firing on all cylinders, posting their strongest gain in more than a year. We also saw robust hiring from midsize and large companies, while job growth in smaller firms slowed slightly.”

The service-providing sector added a whopping 212,000 jobs in January, including 46,000 in professional/business services, 47,000 in education/health services, 41,000 in healthcare/social assistance and 46,000 in leisure/hospitality.

“The job market juggernaut marches on. Given the strong January job gain, 2018 is on track to be the eighth consecutive year in which the economy creates over 2 million jobs,” Mark Zandi, chief economist of Moody’s Analytics,said. “If it falls short, it is likely because businesses can’t find workers to fill all the open job positions.”

Manufacturing added a respectable 12,000 private sector jobs and construction added 9,000. Mining slowed but was still positive adding 1,000.

Meanwhile, small businesses with 1 to 49 employees added 58,000 jobs altogether, while medium businesses with 50 to 499 employees added 91,000. Large businesses with 500 or more added 85,000.

The payroll processing firm ADP obviously anticipates a strong jobs report to be released by the Labor Department via the Bureau of Labor Statistics on Friday. The consensus forecast for the employment situation is calling for 172,000 jobs.