American businesses added 174,000 jobs in January, payroll processor ADP said on Wednesday.
That beat the 50,000 job growth forecast by economists survey by Econoday.
November’s job loss was revised down to 50,000 from the initial report of 123,000, indicating that the monthly figures remain very volatile and uncertain. Since the pandemic struck, the ADP private payroll tracker has often been far afield from the official government figures it is meant to track.
Midsized businesses added the most jobs, 84,000. Small businesses, those with fewer than 50 workers, added 51,000. Large businesses, with 500 or more workers, added 39,000.
The goods producing sector added 19,000, almost entirely in construction. One thousand jobs were added in manufacturing.
The services sector added 156,000. Education and health was the biggest category of services sector jobs growth, adding 54,000 jobs in January. The “information” sector contracted by 1,000 jobs.