According to the ADP National Employment Report, the non-farm private sector added 257,000 jobs in December, up from 211,000 jobs in November. The majority of December’s jobs were created in the Services Sector, which saw the strongest gains since November of 2014.
“Strong job growth shows no signs of abating,” said Mark Zandi, chief economist of Moody’s Analytics. “The only industry shedding jobs is energy. If this pace of job growth is sustained, which seems likely, the economy will be back to full employment by mid-year. This is a significant achievement, given that the last time the economy was at full employment was nearly a decade ago.”
Small businesses, businesses with less than 50 employees, added 95,000 jobs in December, compared to 72,000 in November. Medium-sized businesses with 50-499 employees added 65,000 jobs, up from 59,000 added in November. Large businesses added 97,000 employees, up from 80,000 during November.
Goods producing employment rose by 23,000 jobs after declining by 2,000 last month. Construction jobs grew by 24,000, nearly 5 times November’s rate. Manufacturing jobs increased by only 2,000.
Service providing jobs grew by 234,000, largely due to expansion in the professional and business services sector, which increased by 66,000. The trade transportation and utilities sector posted an increase of 38,000 jobs, down slightly from the 41,000 reported in November. Financial activities jobs increased by 13,000, consistent with the previous three months.
Read the ADP release.
