ADP December jobs report better than expected

The US private sector added more jobs than expected last month, data released on Wednesday showed.

According to private consultancy ADP, employers added 257,000 jobs in December compared with a downwardly-revised tally of 211,000 jobs in October and expectations for a 200,000 gain.

Goods-producing employment rose by 23,000 jobs, up from a downwardly-revised 2,000 drop the previous month.

Meanwhile, the construction industry added 24,000 jobs, which was roughly in line with the 21,000 average monthly jobs gained for the year.

Mark Zandi, chief economist of Moody’s Analytics, said, “Strong job growth shows no signs of abating. 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.”

Pantheon Macroeconomics said: "This looks good but remember that ADP's number is not based solely on data collected from firms which use ADP's payroll processing services. Instead, it is generated from a series of models which do include ADP-collected data but rely heavily on the official payroll data from the previous month, and other indirect indicators of the labor market, like industrial production and personal income, so it is not a reliable advance indicator of Friday's official number."