Shaking off turmoil, U.S. firms added 200,000 jobs in Sept., ADP says
A “Wer’re Hiring” sign is seen outside a Target store in Miami on Sept. 4.
Shaking off financial market turmoil, U.S. companies accelerated their hiring in September and added 200,000 net new jobs, payroll firm Automatic Data Processing said Wednesday.
The job growth was up from 186,000 in August, a figure that was revised down 4,000 from the initial estimate.
Analysts had expected private sector hiring in September to be about 190,000 net new positions.
But the best growth in the construction industry in nearly a decade offset heavy job losses in the manufacturing sector, which has seen exports declining because of a stronger dollar and slowing global growth.
“The U.S. job machine continues to produce jobs at a strong and consistent pace,” said Mark Zandi, chief economist of Moody’s Analytics, which assists ADP in preparing the report.
“Despite job losses in the energy and manufacturing industries, the economy is creating close to 200,000 jobs per month,” he said. “At this pace full employment is fast approaching.”
ADP’s data is viewed as an early signal of what’s coming in the Labor Department’s report on private and public sector job growth.
Economists expect that report, to be released Friday, to show the U.S. added 203,000 net new jobs in September. That would be up from 173,000 the previous month.
The unemployment rate is forecast to hold steady at 5.1%, the lowest since 2008.
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FOR THE RECORD
Oct. 1, 9:57 a.m.: An earlier version of this article said that the September unemployment rate is forecast to hold steady at 8.1%. The rate is forecast to hold steady at 5.1%.
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September job growth will be a major factor in the decision by Federal Reserve policymakers whether to raise a key interest rate for the first time in nearly a decade.
Fed officials opted to hold the so-called federal fund rate at near 0% after their September meeting to allow for more time to assess whether the recent turmoil in financial markets had harmed the U.S. economy.
Friday’s jobs report will be the last one before Fed policymakers meet at the end of October to consider the long-awaited rate hike.
ADP’s report showed that the market tumult, spurred by concerns about slowing growth in China and other countries, didn’t slow hiring in September.
Construction companies added 35,000 net new jobs, nearly double August’s figure and the most since the end of the subprime housing boom in 2006.
But manufacturers cut their overall payrolls by 15,000, the most since 2010, after adding 4,000 jobs in August.
September was the fifth time in seven months manufacturers shed jobs.
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