January is set to see the strongest gain in employment in more than a year, according to the ADP and Moody's Analytics National Employment Report.
January will post a gain of 234,000 jobs, the report explains. This is up from December’s increase of 148,000 jobs. However, last month, ADP predicted December would see a jump of 250,000 jobs, even saying the tight labor market could soon overheat.
“The job market juggernaut marches on,” Moody’s Analytics Chief Economist Mark Zandi said. “Given the strong January job gain, 2018 is on track to be the eighth consecutive year in which the economy creates over 2 million jobs.”
“If it falls short, it is likely because businesses can’t find workers to fill all the open job positions,” Zandi said.
But because ADP often revises its numbers significantly, its reported job growth should be taken as a general direction of the market, but not a specific forecast of the number of jobs added on any given month.
The goods-producing sector is set to increase by 22,000 jobs overall, with changes in the following areas:
Natural resources and mining: Increase 1,000
Construction: Increase 9,000
Manufacturing: Increase 12,000
The service-providing sector is set to increase by about 212,000 jobs, the highest increase in more than a year, with changes in these areas:
Trade, transportation and utilities: Increase 51,000
Information: Decrease 3,000
Financial activities: Increase 16,000
Professional and business: Increase 46,000
Education and health: Increase 47,000
Leisure and hospitality: Increase 46,000
Other services: Increase 9,000
“We’ve kicked off the year with another month of unyielding job gains,” said Ahu Yildirmaz, ADP Research Institute vice president and co-head. “Service providers were firing on all cylinders, posting their strongest gain in more than a year.”
“We also saw robust hiring from midsize and large companies, while job growth in smaller firms slowed slightly,” Yildirmaz said.
