The Wall Street Journal reports,"U.S. businesses added jobs at a very modest pace last month as factories added few new employees, according to a survey of private-sector hiring released Wednesday".
Private-sector payrolls in the U.S. increased by 139,000 new jobs in February, says the national employment report compiled by payroll processor Automatic Data Processing Inc. (ADP) and forecasting firm Moody's Analytics.
Economists surveyed by The Wall Street Journal expected ADP to report a stronger February increase of 160,000 jobs. The January ADP employment increase was cut sharply to 127,000 from 175,000 reported a month ago.
"February was another soft month for the job market," the report said. "Employment was weak across a number of industries."
The ADP estimate is released ahead of the Bureau of Labor Statistics' employment situation report scheduled for Friday.
Economists expect the BLS report will show a job gain of 152,000 in February, faster than the 113,000 added in January.
Forecasters also expect the February unemployment rate to fall to 6.5% from January's 6.6%. If so, it would be the lowest jobless rate since October 2008.
Wednesday's ADP number is unlikely to cause forecasters to change their nonfarm payroll estimates.
According to ADP, firms employing between 1-49 workers hired 59,000 new workers last month. Medium-size businesses with payrolls of 50-499 workers increased payrolls by 35,000 employees. Large firms, businesses with 500 or more employees, hired 44,000 more workers.
Service-sector payrolls increased by 120,000 slots last month, but the factory sector added only 1,000 positions.
Construction payrolls increased by 14,000 slots.
ADP also released its annual revisions to its historical data. The revisions didn't change much the seesaw pattern of monthly job growth last year, although the ultra-large gains at the end of 2013 were scaled back a bit.
