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U.S. private sector adds 212,000 jobs in February

Xinhua, March 5, 2015 Adjust font size:

The U.S. private sector added 212,000 jobs in February, lower than market expectation, said a private survey released Wednesday.

The figure was down from 250,000 jobs in January, said the National Employment Report released jointly by Automatic Data Processing (ADP) and Moody's Analytics, based on a monthly survey.

Economists' average expectation was about an increase of 220, 000 jobs in February.

"While February's job gains came in slightly lower than recent months, the trend of solid growth above 200,000 jobs per month continued," said Carlos Rodriguez, president and executive officer of ADP.

Job growth above 200,000 per month was usually believed to be a healthy pace that is enough to reduce the unemployment rate.

"Job gains remain broad-based, although the collapse in oil prices has begun to weigh on energy-related employment," said Mark Zandi, chief economist of Moody's Analytics.

In February, small and medium-sized businesses accounted for most of the employment gains, adding 157,000 jobs, while large businesses with over 500 employees added 56,000 jobs, said the report.

Employment in the service sector rose by 181,000 jobs in February, down from 206,000 in January. Meanwhile, the manufacturing sector added 3,000 jobs, well below January's 15,000.

The ADP survey studied data from private businesses with more than 23 million workers on payrolls but excluded government job growth. Endite