U.S. businesses added more than 200,000 jobs for a sixth consecutive month in September, bolstered by the strongest hiring the manufacturing industry has reported in over four years.
Private-sector payrolls in the U.S. climbed by 213,000 in September, according to a report by payroll processor Automatic Data Processing and analysis provider Moody’s Analytics. Economists surveyed by Bloomberg had predicted the ADP report to show employers added 200,000 jobs last month.
The manufacturing sector added 35,000 jobs in September, the most since May 2010. The construction, financial activities, and professional/business services sectors also added jobs.
Economists have touted fairly broad job growth in recent months, bolstered in part by a stronger economy.
“Job gains remain strong and steady,” said Mark Zandi, chief economist of Moody’s Analytics. “Especially encouraging most recently is the increasingly broad base nature of those gains. Nearly all industries and companies of all sizes are adding consistently to payrolls.”
Still, there are some pockets of the labor market that aren’t performing well, and not all individuals out on the hunt for a job are successfully finding employment. Wages haven’t yet achieved historical growth rates and labor force participation has flattened — two problematic employment trends.
“The labor market has yet to fully recover,” said Fed chair Janet Yellen at a conference last month. “There are still too many people who want jobs but cannot find them, too many who are working part time but would prefer full-time work, and too many who are not searching for a job but would be if the labor market were stronger.”
The ADP report was issued two days before the government’s closely-watched monthly jobs report, which includes nonfarm payrolls, the unemployment rate and other data. Economists expect that report to show U.S. hiring increased by 215,000 in September, while the nation’s unemployment rate is expected to remain unchanged at 6.1%.
