Private-sector employment grew by almost a quarter-million jobs between January and February, according to the latest National Employment Report from Roseland-based ADP.
The payroll and human resources company said that February saw a 235,000-job increase in nonfarm private employment. Medium-sized businesses with 50 to 499 employees led the way by company size, adding 97,000 new roles. Large businesses with more than 500 employees added 70,000, while small businesses with fewer than 50 employees added 68,000 for the month.
“The labor market continues to experience uninterrupted growth,” said Ahu Yildirmaz, vice president and co-head of the ADP Research Institute. “We see persistent gains across most industries, with leisure and hospitality and retail leading the way as consumer spending kicked up. At this pace of job growth, employers will soon become hard-pressed to find qualified workers.”
In the services sector, there was positive growth, with 198,000 jobs added. The situation was also positive for the goods-producing sector, which grew by 37,000 new positions. Among industries, professional and business services added 46,000 jobs, while leisure/hospitality led the way, gaining 50,000 positions. The only industry to be in the negative was information, which saw a decline of 1,000 jobs.
“The job market is red hot and threatens to overheat. With government spending increases and tax cuts, growth is set to accelerate,” said Mark Zandi, chief economist of Moody’s Analytics.
