The employment
report released by Automatic Data Processing Inc. (ADP) and Moody's Analytics on
Wednesday showed that U.S. private employers added 155,000 jobs in March.
Economists had predicted
an addition of 105,000 new jobs in March.
Meanwhile, the February
figure saw an upward revision to 84,000 from the originally reported 77,000.
According to the
report, the March job advance
was underpinned by higher hiring in professional and business services (+57,000),
financial activities (+38,000), manufacturing (+21,000), leisure and
hospitality (+17,000), education and health services (+12,000), other services
(+11,000), construction (+6,000), and information (+.3,000). At the same time,
trade, transportation and utilities (-6,000) and natural resources and mining
(-3,000) reduced jobs last month.
The report also
revealed that pay increases slowed in March. Pay growth
for job stayers was 4.6 per cent y-o-y, slightly down from 4.7 per cent
y-o-y in the previous month. Meanwhile, pay growth for job changers was 6.5 per
cent y-o-y, down from 6.8 per cent
y-o-y in February.
Commenting on
the latest data, Nela Richardson, Chief Economist at ADP, stated that despite policy
uncertainty and downbeat consumers, the March jobs number was a good one for
the economy and employers of all sizes, if not necessarily all sectors. She
also noted that manufacturing delivered stronger-than-average job gains for the
second straight month.