Numbers from the private sector are again demonstrating the irrelevance of the October government shutdown to the nation’s private business sector.
The private sector added 215,000 jobs in November, far more than the 185,000 jobs anticipated by most economics, according to ADP, the payroll processing company. It’s the most jobs added in a one-month period in the last year.
The last time this many jobs were added in one month was November 2012, when 276,000 jobs were added.
The federal government will weigh in with its own job report on Friday. The ADP report often is seen as an indicator of what the federal government will report.
ADP also revised its figures for October. The company had originally reported that the nation‘s private sector added 130,000 jobs that month. The new figure released this week showed that the number was actually 184,000.
The majority of the new hires – 102,000 – were in small businesses of less than 50 employees.
The numbers indicate that private businesses were able to weather the government shutdown and the lengthy debate over raising the nation’s debt ceiling, according to The Los Angeles Times. The numbers are good news for college students or those considering going to school to earn a degree in a business-related field.
There have been other indicators of an improving economy – better stock and home prices, for example – but the job numbers are perhaps the best indication that things are improving.
“The job market remained surprisingly resilient to the government shutdown and brinkmanship over the Treasury debt limit,” Mark Zandi, chief economist of Moody’s Analytics, which assists ADP in its monthly report, told the Los Angeles Times.
“Employers across all industries and company sizes looked through the political battle in Washington. If anything, job growth appears to be picking up.”
ADP reported the numbers by sector. The service sector, which added 176,000 jobs, lead the way with the most jobs added. Both the construction and manufacturing industries added 18,000 jobs each. Professional and business services added 38,000 jobs, while trade, transportation and utilities added 45,000.
Zandi told the Times that many of these are important jobs because they offer good-paying, middle class incomes.
Zandi, speaking to the Times, warned that the federal job reports could show significantly less gains because of issues with data collection due to the shutdown and also the fact that the holiday shopping season, and the attendant job creation, started a week later than usual this year.
However, he told the Times that unless there is another protracted government shutdown in January, the 2014 economic picture will include “much better growth” in the job market.
