ADP Dec US Private Sector Jobs +325,000

The private sector added a white-hot 325,000 jobs in December, according to Automatic Data Processing's monthly hiring report.

The payroll processing company's report, released Thursday, works to capture the monthly change in nonfarm private sector job changes. Forecasters had expected to see a gain of 175,000, following the revised 204,000 gain seen in November.

"December's advance was the largest monthly gain since December 2010, reflecting strong job creation across most industries," said ADP President and Chief Executive Carlos Rodriguez.

"Small and medium-sized businesses were hiring at a similar pace," he said, adding that "job creation among large employers was also encouraging."

In the report, large firms added 37,000 jobs, while the service sector as a whole added 273,000 new employees. The goods-producing sector added 52,000.

The ADP report comes just ahead of Friday's release of the December nonfarm payrolls report. The Friday report is frequently the most important release in any given month's calendar of economic events, offering key insights into the health of the economy.

The challenge for financial markets is that the job data generated in the ADP report doesn't line up all that well with the data produced by the government. Economists currently expect that the improvements that have been seen in hiring over recent months will have continued into the final month of the year, with the nation expected to have added 155,000 jobs, versus the 120,000-job gain in November. The unemployment rate is seen ticking up a hair to 8.7%, from 8.6%.

-By Michael S. Derby, Dow Jones Newswires; 212-416-2214; michael.derby@dowjones.com

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