US companies add 455,000 jobs in March, ADP report shows
Economists expected companies to add 455,000 jobs in March
FOX Business' Cheryl Casone reports on the 'strong' February jobs report.
U.S. companies hired employees at a healthy clip in March, suggesting the labor market is still strong and that businesses are eager to fill a near-record number of open positions, according to the ADP National Employment Report released Wednesday morning.
Companies added 455,000 jobs in March, slightly above the 450,000 gain that economists surveyed by Refinitiv had predicted but below the revised 486,000 increase in February. The latest hiring figures bring the first-quarter jobs total to 1.45 million for the private sector.
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Job gains were broad-based across sectors.
Service-providing industries added 377,000 new jobs last month, with the largest increases in leisure and hospitality (161,000), education and health services (72,000), professional and business services (61,000) and trade, transportation and utilities (49,000).
A large "Now Hiring" advertisement posted on the windows of the Advance Auto Parts store in Bay Shore, New York on March 24, 2022. ((Photo by Steve Pfost/Newsday RM via Getty Images) / Getty Images)
Goods-producing industries, meanwhile, saw payrolls grow by 79,000, with the bulk of the gains in manufacturing (54,000) and construction (15,000).
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Businesses of all sizes saw gains last month: Large businesses, which employ more than 500 workers, saw an increase of 177,000, while medium businesses, which have between 50 and 499 workers, added 188,000. Small businesses hired 90,000 employees in March.
"Businesses are hiring, specifically among the service providers which had the most ground to make up due to early pandemic losses," said Nela Richardson, chief economist at ADP. "However, a tight labor supply remains an obstacle for continued growth in consumer-facing industries."
People seeking employment attend the 25th annual Central Florida Employment Council Job Fair at the Central Florida Fairgrounds. (Photo by Paul Hennessy/SOPA Images/LightRocket via Getty Images / Getty Images)
A separate Labor Department report released on Tuesday revealed there were about 11.3 million open jobs by the end of February – the third-highest on record. At the same time, about 4.4 million Americans, or 2.9% of the workforce, quit their jobs last month as they continue to search for better wages and working conditions.
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The ADP report precedes the release of the more closely watched jobs report from the Labor Department’s Bureau of Labor Statistics, which is expected to show the economy added 480,000 jobs last month and the employment rate inched lower to 3.7%.