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U.S. private sector adds 246,000 jobs in January: ADP

Xinhua, February 2, 2017 Adjust font size:

The U.S. private sector added 246,000 jobs in January, the second highest level in a year and well above market expectation, according to a private survey released Wednesday.

The new increase was announced by Automatic Data Processing (ADP) and Moody's Analytics in a National Employment Report based on a monthly survey.

The data is much higher than the market expectation of 165,000 job gains. Private jobs added in December were revised down to 151,000 from the previous report of 153,000.

In January, small and medium-sized businesses accounted for more than half of the employment gains, adding 164,000 jobs, while large businesses with more than 500 employees added 83,000 jobs, according to the report.

Employment in the service sector rose by 201,000 jobs in January and goods-producing employment rose by 46,000 jobs in the same month.

"The U.S. labor market is hitting on all cylinders and we saw small and medium-sized businesses perform exceptionally well," said Ahu Yildirmaz, head of the ADP Research Institute.

"The good producers added 46,000 jobs, which is the strongest job growth that sector has seen in the last two years," Yildirmaz added.

"2017 got off to a strong start in the job market," said Mark Zandi, chief economist of Moody's Analytics. "Job growth is solid across most industries and company sizes. Even the energy sector is adding to payrolls again."

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