Companies Added 208,000 Workers in November, ADP Says
Companies in the U.S. added 208,000 workers in November, indicating steady progress in the labor market, a private payrolls report showed.
The increase in employment followed a revised 233,000 gain the prior month, figures from the Roseland, New Jersey-based ADP Research Institute showed.
The median forecast of 47 economists surveyed by Bloomberg News called for an advance of 222,000. Payrolls have climbed by at least 200,000 in seven of the last eight months.
Resilient domestic demand, supported in part by falling energy costs, is encouraging employers to add to headcounts even as global economies struggle. Faster wage gains would help provide an added boost to household spending, which makes up almost 70% of the economy.
“There’s a pretty decent trend right now in the labor market,” Brett Ryan, a U.S. economist with Deutsche Bank Securities Inc. in New York, said. “With energy prices low, that’s going to be a positive for consumer spending.”
Estimates in the Bloomberg survey ranged from gains of 190,000 to 262,000 after a previously reported increase of 230,000 in October.
Goods-producing industries, which include manufacturers and construction companies, increased headcount by 32,000 in November, according to the report. Employment in construction rose by 17,000, while factories added 11,000 jobs. Payrolls at service providers advanced by 176,000.
Companies employing 500 or more workers added 42,000 jobs. Medium-sized businesses, with 50 to 499 employees, took on 65,000 workers and the smallest companies increased payrolls by 101,000, the report showed.
It’s “steady as she goes in the job market,” Mark Zandi, chief economist at Moody’s Analytics Inc., said in a statement. Moody’s produces the figures with ADP. “At this pace the unemployment rate will drop by half a percentage point per annum. The tightening in the job market will soon prompt acceleration in wage growth.”
The ADP report is based on data from businesses with almost than 24 million workers on their combined payrolls.
Employment probably increased by 230,000 in November after a 214,000 gain the previous month, according to the Bloomberg survey median ahead of the Labor Department’s Dec. 5 report. The unemployment rate is projected to hold at 5.8%, the lowest since July 2008.
Payrolls gains have averaged 228,500 so far this year, putting the labor market on pace for its strongest year since 1999.
Federal Reserve officials have cited labor market progress as they remove unprecedented accommodation meant to stimulate the economy. The central bankers at their most recent meeting in October ended a monthly asset purchase program that ballooned the balance sheet to almost $4.5 trillion, while keeping interest rates near zero.
