Payrolls rose less than expected in the U.S. private sector last month, as employers worked to fill persistent vacancies to help meet demand.
Private-sector payrolls grew by 247,000 in April, ADP said in its closely watched monthly report on Wednesday. This came following an increase of 479,000 private payrolls in March, according to ADP’s revised monthly print. Consensus economists were looking for private payrolls to rise by 383,000, according to Bloomberg data.
The U.S. services sector saw the largest gains in private payrolls last month, with nearly every industry group adding back jobs. However, job growth slowed compared to March, contributing to the headline deceleration in total private payroll gains.
Leisure and hospitality employers added back 77,000 jobs in April, which while still the most of any industry group, was less than half the gain in payrolls from March. This was followed by professional and business services, with payrolls rising by 50,000 in April, and education and health services with gains of 48,000. In the goods-producing sector, payrolls grew on net in each of the manufacturing, construction and mining industries.
ADP’s monthly private jobs report comes, as usual, two days before the Labor Department releases its official jobs report. While ADP’s report typically does not serve as a perfect indicator of what to expect in the government-issued data due to differences in survey methodology, the print has often helped give a direction sense of job growth that took place during a given period.
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