U.S. nonfarm private-sector employment rose by 158,000 in October from the previous month on a seasonally adjusted basis, according to the national employment report released by Automatic Data Process Inc. (NASD: ADP) and Moody’s Analytics. This month’s ADP report features a new, enhanced methodology.

Service-providing jobs rose by 144,000 in October. The goods-producing sector added 14,000 jobs in October after declining in the two prior months.

“Businesses are adding consistently to their payrolls,” said Mark Zandi, chief economist at Moody’s Analytics. “October’s job gains were in line with the average monthly gains of the past two years, with sturdy albeit less than stellar growth across most industries and company sizes. Businesses have turned more cautious in recent months, but that has yet to impact their hiring and firing decisions.”

Beginning with this month’s report, the ADP Research Institute is partnering with Moody’s Analytics and using a new methodology to produce the monthly ADP national employment report so that it more closely aligns with the final, revised U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics job numbers.

The new methodology increases the sample size of ADP clients from 344,000 U.S. companies to 406,000 and increases the population of employees from 21 million employees to 23 million.