US Private Sector Creates 749,000 Jobs in September -- ADP

   By Xavier Fontdegloria

The nonfarm private sector in the U.S. added 749,000 jobs in September, suggesting the pace of job gains accelerated in the month, data from ADP National Employment Report showed Wednesday.

Total U.S. nonfarm private employment increased by 749,000 from July to August. Economists polled by The Wall Street Journal were expecting it to show a gain of 600,000 jobs.

September's reading signals an acceleration in job creation compared with August figures, which were upwardly revised to 481,000 jobs gained from an initial estimate of 428,000.

Despite the improvements registered every month since May, the labor market is still far from recovering from the record-breaking 19.4 million jobs destroyed in April as the coronavirus pandemic took hold and economy was brought into halt.

"The labor market continues to recover gradually," Ahu Yildirmaz, co-head of the ADP Research Institute, said in prepared remarks.

Large businesses, those of at least 500 workers, are the ones which added most jobs, with an increase of 297,000. Medium businesses, between 50 and 499 employees, added 259,000 jobs, while small businesses, with a maximum of 49 employees, registered a 192,000 increase in jobs.

"Small businesses continued to demonstrate slower growth," Mr. Yildirmaz said.

Job creation was seen across almost all sectors, the report showed, with the service-providing sector adding 552,000 jobs and the goods-producing sector creating 196,000 jobs.

Among services, trade, transportation and utilities gained the most, with 186,000 jobs created, followed by 101,000 new jobs in health care and social assistance. Education subsector saw a reduction of 11,000 jobs, data showed.

As for the goods-producing sector, manufacturing gained 130,000 jobs, construction 60,000 and mining 7,000.

The report, done 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 September employment report, which covers the same period as the ADP National Employment Report, on Friday. Economists are expecting it to show nonfarm payrolls up 800,000 jobs for the month, and a reduction in the unemployment rate to 8.2% from 8.4% in August.

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

(END) Dow Jones Newswires

September 30, 2020 08:43 ET (12:43 GMT)

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