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ADP National Employment Report: Private Sector Employment Increased by 235,000 Jobs in February

Staff Report

Thursday, March 8th, 2018

Private sector employment increased by 235,000 jobs from January to February according to the February ADP National Employment Report.  Broadly distributed to the public each month, free of charge, the ADP National Employment Report is produced by the ADP Research Institute in collaboration with Moody's Analytics.  The report, which is derived from ADP's actual payroll data, measures the change in total nonfarm private employment each month on a seasonally-adjusted basis.  

February 2018 Report Highlights

Total U.S. Nonfarm Private Employment: 235,000

By Company Size

  • Small businesses: 68,000

    • 1-19 employees: 27,000

    • 20-49 employees: 41,000

  • Medium businesses: 97,000

    • 50-499 employees: 97,000

  •  Large businesses: 70,000

    • 500-999 employees: 11,000

    • 1,000+ employees: 58,000

By Sector

  • Goods-producing: 37,000

    • Natural resources/mining: 2,000

    • Construction: 21,000

    • Manufacturing: 14,000

  • Service-providing: 198,000

    • Trade/transportation/utilities: 44,000

    • Information: -1,000

    • Financial activities: 9,000

    • Professional/business services: 46,000

      • Professional/technical services: 22,000

      • Management of companies/enterprises: 2,000

      • Administrative/support services: 22,000

    • Education/health services: 43,000

      • Health care/social assistance: 38,000

      • Education: 5,000

    • Leisure/hospitality: 50,000

    • Other services: 7,000

* Sum of components may not equal total, due to rounding.

  • Franchise Employment

    • Franchise jobs: 24,700

"The labor market continues to experience uninterrupted growth," said Ahu Yildirmaz, vice president and co-head of the ADP Research Institute. "We see persistent gains across most industries with leisure and hospitality and retail leading the way as consumer spending kicked up.  At this pace of job growth employers will soon become hard-pressed to find qualified workers."

Mark Zandi, chief economist of Moody's Analytics, said, "The job market is red hot and threatens to overheat.  With government spending increases and tax cuts, growth is set to accelerate." 

The matched sample used to develop the ADP National Employment Report was derived from ADP payroll data, which represents 411,000 U.S. clients employing nearly 24 million workers in the U.S. The January total of jobs added was revised up from 234,000 to 244,000.

In February's report, the following scheduled annual revisions have been reflected in the estimates of employment shown in the ADP National Employment Report:

  • New regression coefficients and historical job growth estimates based on ADP data and revised payroll data through December 2017 from the Bureau of Labor Statistics;

  • Incorporation of March 2017 industry and size class data from the Quarterly Census of Employment and Wages (QCEW) in the generation process; and

  • Adjustments of historical job growth estimates consistent with QCEW data through March 2017 and the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics' annual benchmarking process.