ADP Says Companies Added 189,000 Workers in March
Companies in the U.S. added fewer workers than forecast in March, keeping staffing levels in line with a recent slowdown in demand, according to a private report.
Employment climbed 189,000 last month, the smallest gain since January 2014, after a revised 214,000 rise in the prior month, figures from the ADP Research Institute in Roseland, New Jersey showed April 1. The median projection of 42 economists surveyed by Bloomberg News called for an advance of 225,000.
Companies are starting to slow the pace of hiring after consumer spending cooled along with corporate investment and as overseas economies continued to struggle. Labor Department data on April 3 is projected to show employers added almost a quarter million workers to payrolls in March.
“Job growth took a step back in March,” Mark Zandi, chief economist at Moody’s Analytics Inc. in West Chester, Pennsylvania, said in a statement. Moody’s produces the figures with ADP. “The fallout from the collapse in oil prices and surge in value of the dollar is hitting the job market. Despite the slowdown, underlying job growth remains strong enough to reduce labor market slack.”
Estimates in the Bloomberg survey ranged from gains of 178,000 to 265,000 after a previously reported February advance of 212,000.
Goods-producing industries, which include manufacturers and builders, increased headcount by 5,000. Hiring in construction rose by 17,000, while factories cut 1,000 jobs, the report showed. Payrolls at service providers rose by 184,000.
Companies employing 500 or more workers added 19,000 jobs. Medium-sized businesses, with 50 to 499 employees, took on 62,000 workers and small companies increased payrolls by 108,000.
The ADP report is based on data from businesses with almost 24 million workers on their combined payrolls.
Sustained gains in hiring are needed to accelerate wages, which, together with cheaper fuel, will allow households to stretch their budgets and keep spending.
The March jobs report, due from the Labor Department on April 3, may show private businesses added 240,000 employees after a 288,000 increase in February, according to the median forecast of economists surveyed by Bloomberg.
The survey projections also show overall payrolls, which include government agencies, rose by 245,000 workers in March after climbing by 295,000 the prior month. The unemployment rate probably held at 5.5 %, the lowest since 2008.
A global slide in prices of commodities such as oil is hurting employment. U.S. Steel Corp., the country’s second-biggest producer of the metal, said March 25 it will temporarily idle an Illinois factory making flat-rolled steel, citing adverse market conditions including cheap imports and lower oil prices. It notified 2,080 workers about the potential dismissals.
