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US – ADP: US job growth ‘sturdy’

March 06, 2013

The U.S. added 198,000 nonfarm, private-sector jobs in February, according to the national employment report released today by Automatic Data Processing Inc. (NASD: ADP). However, the seasonally adjusted gain in February is below the revised gain of 215,000 jobs in January.

“The job market remains sturdy in the face of significant fiscal headwinds,” said Mark Zandi, chief economist of Moody’s Analytics, which produces the report for ADP. “Businesses are adding to payrolls more strongly at the start of 2013 with gains across all industries and business sizes. Tax increases and government spending cuts don’t appear to be affecting the job market.”

The service-providing sector added 164,000 jobs in February. The goods-producing sector added 34,000 jobs, driven largely by a gain in 21,000 construction jobs.

Small businesses, those with fewer than 50 workers, added 77,000 jobs in February. Large business, those with 500 or more workers, added 57,000 jobs. Midsize businesses added 65,000 jobs.

The report is based on an anonymous subset of 416,000 ADP clients in the U.S. that employ nearly 24 million U.S. workers.