April 2 (UPI) — Private employers created 155,000 jobs in March in the United States, according to a Wednesday report from payroll company ADP. It was more than Dow Jones economists expected.
“Despite uncertainty and downbeat consumers, the bottom line is this: The March topline number was a good one for the economy and employers of all sizes, if not necessarily all sectors,” said ADP chief economist Nela Richardson in a statement.
Private sector job creation was higher than the 120,000 Dow Jones economists anticipated and it was considerably more than the 77,000 jobs ADP reported in February.
The vast bulk of the private jobs created — 132,000 — were service jobs, according to ADP.
Goods-producing industries created 24,000 jobs in March.
Manufacturing accounted for 21,000 of those, while construction added 6,000.
Job creation varied widely by region, led by the Northeast’s 89,000 and the Midwest’s 81,000.
The South added 27,000 but the West lost 41,000 jobs.
ADP said private job gains were pretty evenly distributed across small, medium and large businesses.
Big companies with 500 or more employees led with 59,000 jobs created in March. Small business with fewer than 50 employees generated 52,000 new jobs and medium-sized firms created 43,000.
“Year-over-year pay gains slowed to 4.6% for job-stayers and to 6.5% for job-changers,” ADP’s statement said. “The pay premium for job-changers was 1.9%, matching a low last seen in September.”
