Private-sector employment was up by more than 200,000 jobs between December and January, according to the latest National Employment Report by Roseland-based ADP.
The payroll and human resources company said in a news release that the month saw a 202,000-job uptick in nonfarm private employment.
“Job creation was strong across companies of all sizes, led predominantly by mid-sized companies,” Ahu Yildirmaz, vice president and co-head of the ADP Research Institute, said.
By company size, medium-sized businesses with 50 to 499 employees added 88,000 positions, small businesses with less than 50 employees added 69,000, and large businesses with more than 500 employees added 45,000.
“As 2019 came to a close, we saw expanded payrolls in December. The service providers posted the largest gain since April, driven mainly by professional and business services,” he said.
It was a positive month in both the service-providing sector and the goods-producing sector, which grew by 173,000 and 29,000 jobs, respectively. Among industries, trade/transportation/utilities added 78,000 new positions followed by professional and business services adding 61,000 jobs; education and health services, 49,000 jobs; construction, 37,000 jobs; financial activities, 10,000 jobs; and other services 10,000 jobs. Losses were seen in the information (-14,000), leisure/hospitality (-21,000), manufacturing (-7,000) and natural resources/mining (-1,000) industries.
“Looking through the monthly vagaries of the data, job gains continue to moderate. Manufacturers, energy producers and small companies have been shedding jobs. Unemployment is low, but will begin to rise if job growth slows much further,” Mark Zandi, chief economist of Moody’s Analytics, said.
