February saw U.S. private employers adding 214,000 jobs beating the projections of economists. This indicates that there is solid job growth in the country even with the market volatility and concerns about the slow growth of the global economy.
Automatic Data Processing (ADP), a payroll processor reported on Wednesday that the better-than-expected hiring by the private sector has increased from 205,000 in January. The report is a joint effort between ADP and Moody's Analytics.
"It's a very strong report. The labor market is healthy," said Mark Zandi, chief economist at Moody's Analytics. "This is very good news particularly in the context of the turmoil in the financial markets in the past several months," he adds.
This improving job scenario has sparked optimism that the trend will continue throughout the rest of the year.
Based on ADP's monthly jobs report, a total of 76,000 jobs were created in February by small businesses with 1 to 49 employees. This figure represents over 35 percent of the total market growth.
The number is also the same as the gains achieved by larger companies with 500 employees or more. Businesses with 1 to 19 workers added 37,000 new employees, while companies with 20 to 49 workers brought in 38,000 new hires.
According to Zandi, if the private sector sustains the expansion of their payrolls, U.S. economy will be able to reach full employment by mid-year.
The ADP report came in advance of the non-farm payrolls report of the U.S. Labor Department on Friday. This report contains both public and private sector employment statistics.
A Reuter's survey of economists is hoping for U.S. private sector employment to have increased by 185,000 jobs in February, which is an increase from 158,000 in January. They expected that total non-farm employment would reach 190,000.
The U.S. unemployment rate is projected to stay constant at 4.9 percent, still the same as the previous month.
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