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U.S. private sector hiring slows in January

Xinhua, February 5, 2015 Adjust font size:

The U.S. private sector hiring slowed in January to the slowest pace in four months as oil and gas drilling companies started to lay off workers, said a private survey released Wednesday.

U.S. private companies added 213,000 jobs in January, the fewest since October, said the National Employment Report released jointly by Automatic Data Processing (ADP) and Moody's Analytics, based on a monthly survey.

Economists had expected employment to climb by about 225,000 jobs in January following an upwardly revised increase of 253,000 jobs in December.

"Employment posted another solid gain in January, although the pace of growth is slower than in recent months," said Mark Zandi, chief economist of Moody's Analytics in a statement.

"Business in the energy and supplying industries are already scaling back payrolls in reaction to the collapse in oil prices, while industries benefiting from the lower prices have been slower to increase their hiring," he added.

In January, small- and medium-sized businesses accounted for most of the employment gains, adding 173,000 jobs, while large businesses with over 500 employees added 40,000 jobs, according to the report.

Employment in the service sector rose by 183,000 jobs in January, down from 207,000 in the prior month. Meanwhile, the construction sector added 18,000 jobs and the manufacturing sector gained 14,000 jobs.

The ADP survey studied data from private businesses with more than 23 million workers on payrolls but excluded government job growth. The Labor Department will release its jobs report for January on Friday.

The Labor Department said last month the U.S. economy added 252, 000 jobs in December, making 2014 the best year for hiring since 1999, and the unemployment rate declined by 0.2 percentage point to 5.6 percent, the lowest level in six and a half years. Endite