Private payrolls add 63,000 jobs in February, ADP says
By Augusta Saraiva | Bloomberg News
U.S. companies added the most jobs since July last month, adding to evidence of some stabilization in the labor market.
Private-sector payrolls increased 63,000 in February after a downward revision to the prior month, according to ADP Research data out Wednesday. The median estimate in a Bloomberg survey of economists called for a 50,000 advance.
The report points to a labor market that’s slowly finding its footing after near-zero job creation in 2025. A year into President Donald Trump’s second term, some employers are ramping up hiring now that there’s more clarity around his economic policies. Tax cuts could also provide a boost to investment and job growth.
Federal Reserve officials generally see the job market as stabilizing, which should allow them to keep interest rates unchanged in the near future so that they can focus on stubborn inflation. Policymakers this week have said it’s too soon to assess how the war in Iran will impact the U.S. economy.
The advance in hiring was led by education and health services, which has been responsible for the majority of job creation in the last year. Construction and information also added to payrolls. The strongest hiring was seen in the South as well as at businesses with fewer than 20 employees.
The ADP report, published in collaboration with the Stanford Digital Economy Lab, showed workers who changed jobs saw a 6.3% increase in pay from a year earlier, a slowdown from January. Wage growth for those who stayed put held at 4.5%.
“We’ve seen an increase in hiring and pay gains remain solid, especially for job-stayers,” Nela Richardson, chief economist at ADP and a contributor to Bloomberg Television, said in a statement. “But with hiring concentrated in only a few sectors, our data shows no widespread pay benefit from changing jobs.”
The government’s employment report due Friday is expected to show a moderate pace of hiring and stable unemployment after a strong start to the year. Some economists have warned that severe winter weather could dent the headline payrolls figure.
ADP bases its findings on payrolls covering more than 26 million U.S. private-sector employees.