Employers added 238,000 jobs in December, the most since November 2012, according to payroll processing company ADP.
Much of the hiring occurred in the services industry. However, there also were surges in hiring among traditional blue collar industries, including the long-suffering construction industry.
The ADP data was released just two days before the U.S. Department of Labor releases unemployment figures for December and revised numbers for November.
According to ADP, professional/business services added the most jobs at 53,000. Construction firms added 48,000 jobs in December, which is the highest amount since 2006. Utilities added 47,000 jobs while manufacturers added 19,000 jobs.
According to CNN Money, the numbers are part of a trend showing the economy started to improve in 2013. Reports have shown an increase in consumer confidence, new home construction and in the amount of orders received by factories, according to CNN Money.
Mark Zandi, an economist at Moody Analytics, told CNN Money that the numbers show a shift in the thinking of top executives across the country.
“Light switches have been going on in board rooms and CEOs are deciding to expand their businesses and hire more. That’s showing up in the data,” Zandi told CNN Money. However, he also predicted that it will be the end of 2016 before the country reaches “full employment,” which he defined as an unemployment rate of 5.5%.
The current numbers translate into about 11 million American workers remaining unemployed. To put it in context, that is roughly the entire population of Ohio. Or, put another way, it’s about the combined population of Nebraska, Idaho, Hawaii, Maine, New Hampshire, Rhode Island, Montana, Delaware and South Dakota.
Peter Doeringer, an economics professor at Boston University, told National Public Radio that the ADP numbers indicate a gradual improvement in the nation’s economy.
“While some fluctuations in this number can be expected in the future, and we still face uncertain congressional decisions regarding the federal budget and the debt ceiling, the signs of recovery are accumulating,” Doeringer told NPR.
The federal unemployment numbers will be released Friday morning. In November, those numbers showed that the United States added 203,000 jobs in November and the unemployment rate stood at 7%. Most economists expect the unemployment rate to stay about the same in December.
Congress is still trying to hammer out a plan to begin sending unemployment benefits to the 1.3 million Americans who are considered the long-term unemployed. Those benefits ended in December.
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