U.S. Employers Kept Strong Hiring Momentum in November -- ADP

By Xavier Fontdegloria

Hiring among the U.S. private sector kept robust pace in November, signaling that the job market continued to recover from the pandemic-induced shock.

The U.S. nonfarm private employment rose by 534,000 in November, data from ADP National Employment Report showed Wednesday, beating the 506,000 rise forecast by economists polled by The Wall Street Journal. The number of jobs added in October was slightly revised to 570,000.

"The labor market recovery continued to power through its challenges last month," said Nela Richardson, chief economist at ADP.

Large businesses, those of at least 500 workers, added 277,000 jobs in November, the report said. Medium-sized businesses, between 50 and 499 employees, created 142,000 jobs; and small businesses, with a maximum of 49 employees, recorded 115,000 payroll gains.

By sector, services providers created 424,000 jobs, with leisure and hospitality adding 136,000 payrolls, the data showed.

Jobs in the goods-producing sector were up by 110,000, with 52,000 in construction, 50,000 in manufacturing and 7,000 in natural resources and mining.

Job gains have topped 15 million since the recovery from the pandemic began, but there is still a gap of around five million additional jobs to fill to recover to pre-pandemic levels, Ms. Richardson said. It is too early to tell if the Omicron variant could potentially slow the jobs recovery in coming months, she said.

The report, carried out by the ADP Research Institute along with Moody's Analytics, is based on data through the 12th of the month.

The U.S. Department of Labor is expected to release its employment report for November, which covers the same period as the ADP National Employment Report, on Friday. Economists polled by The Wall Street Journal are expecting it to show nonfarm payrolls up by 573,000 for the month and the unemployment rate down to 4.5%. The ADP series can diverge considerably from the Labor Department's data.

Write to Xavier Fontdegloria at xavier.fontdegloria@wsj.com

(END) Dow Jones Newswires

December 01, 2021 08:47 ET (13:47 GMT)

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