A month after reporting the first loss since April, the earnings picture bounced back in January when companies added 174,000 new jobs, according to a report Wednesday from payment processing company ADP.
The win surpassed the 50,000 estimate from economists Dow Jones surveyed and improved on a December 78,000 decline, a number revised from the initially reported decline of 123,000.
“The labor market continues to slow in the midst of COVID-19 headaches,” said Ahu Yildirmaz, vice president and co-head of the ADP Research Institute.
Services-related businesses accounted for 156,000 of the total benefit, led by health care and social support with 48,000 and professional and business services with 40,000.
The entertainment and hospitality industry batter, which is still down about 4 million jobs from pre-pandemic levels, posted 35,000 for the month, according to ADP. That has come when some governments relaxed restrictions imposed around the holidays when Covid’s affairs were spinning.
In terms of product production, construction added 18,000 jobs and manufacturing saw a gain of 1,000. Trade, transport and facilities rose by 16,000.
Medium-sized companies with 50 to 499 employees created the majority of jobs at 84,000. Small companies contributed 51,000 and large companies added 39,000.
The ADP release comes two days ahead of a Labor Department report looking more closely at non-farm payments. The Dow Jones estimate for that account is also at 50,000, and the unemployment rate is expected to be stable at 6.7%. The December survey showed a loss of 140,000, the first time the economy has lost jobs since the recovery began in May.
Although the economy has recovered 12.3 million jobs since May, that still leaves 10.7 million American workers unemployed, more than 5 million above pre-existing levels.