Federal Reserve officials generally see the job market as stabilising, which should allow them to keep interest rates unchanged in the near future so that they can focus on stubborn inflation. Policymakers this week have said it’s too soon to assess how the war in Iran will impact the US economy.
The advance in hiring was led by education and health services, which have been responsible for the majority of job creation in the last year. Construction and information were also added to payrolls. The strongest hiring was seen in the South as well as at businesses with fewer than 20 employees.The ADP report, published in collaboration with the Stanford Digital Economy Lab, showed workers who changed jobs saw a 6.3% increase in pay from a year earlier, a slowdown from January. Wage growth for those who stayed put held at 4.5%.
“We’ve seen an increase in hiring and pay gains remain solid, especially for job-stayers,” Nela Richardson, chief economist at ADP and a contributor to Bloomberg Television, said in a statement. “But with hiring concentrated in only a few sectors, our data shows no widespread pay benefit from changing jobs.”
The government’s employment report due Friday is expected to show a moderate pace of hiring and stable unemployment after a strong start to the year. Some economists have warned that severe winter weather could dent the headline payrolls figure. ADP bases its findings on payrolls covering more than 26 million US private-sector employees.
(Edited by : Jomy Jos Pullokaran)
