The U.S. job market continues improving with a new report showing private sector employment increased by 230,000 jobs from September to October, the biggest gain since June.
Economic Watch: Job Creation Above 200,000 for Seventh Straight Month
The U.S. job market continues improving with a new report showing private sector employment increased by 230,000 jobs from September to October, the biggest gain since June.
Evan Lockridge・Former Business Contributing Editor
2 min to read
The figures from payroll processing company ADP and its National Employment Report shows goods-producing employment rose by 48,000 jobs in October, down slightly from 50,000 jobs gained in September. The construction industry added 28,000 jobs compared to last month’s gain of 13,000 while manufacturing added 15,000 jobs, down by over half from September’s 33,000, which was the highest total in that sector since March 2011.
Service-providing employment rose by 181,000 jobs in October, up from 176,000 in September, professional/business services contributed 53,000 jobs, while expansion in trade/transportation/utilities grew by 47,000, up from September’s total 37,000.
The earlier reported September total of jobs added was revised upward from 213,000 to 225,000 while this latest report is the seventh straight month job creation exceeded the 200,000 level.
“The job market is steadily picking up pace,” said Mark Zandi, chief economist of Moody’s Analytics, who provides analysis of the report. “Job growth is strong and broad-based across industries and company sizes. At this pace of job growth unemployment and underemployment is quickly declining. The job market will soon be tight enough to support a meaningful acceleration in wage growth.”
Payrolls for businesses with 49 or fewer employees increased by 102,000 jobs in October, up from 93,000 in September. Job growth was up dramatically over the month for medium-sized firms with employment among companies with 50 to 499 employees, rising by 122,000, well over twice September’s increase. Employment at large companies, those with 500 or more employees, saw a big drop from 85,000 the previous month to only 5,000 jobs added in October. Companies with 500-999 employees added 14,000 jobs, up from September’s 8,000. However, this increase was offset by the loss of 8,000 jobs by companies with over 1,000 employees.
The report is derived from ADP payroll data, which represents 411,000 U.S. clients employing nearly 24 million workers in the U.S.
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