WASHINGTON (Reuters) – U.S. private employers maintained a strong pace of hiring in November, though worker shortages remained a challenge.
Private payrolls increased by 534,000 jobs last month, the ADP National Employment Report showed on Wednesday. Data for October was revised slightly lower to show 570,000 jobs added instead of the initially reported 571,000.
Economists polled by Reuters had forecast private payrolls would increase by 525,000 jobs.
The ADP report is jointly developed with Moody’s Analytics and was published ahead of the Labor Department’s more comprehensive, and closely watched, employment report for November on Friday. It has, however, a poor record predicting the private payrolls count in the department’s Bureau of Labor Statistics employment report because of methodology differences.
Economists expect job gains increased further in November. First-time applications for unemployment benefits declined between mid-October and mid-November. The Conference Board’s labor market differential – derived from data on consumers’ views on whether jobs are plentiful or hard to get – jumped to a record high in November.
But a shortage of workers caused by the COVID-19 pandemic is hindering faster job growth. There were 10.4 million job openings at the end of September.
According to a Reuters survey of economists, private payrolls likely increased by 530,000 jobs in November. With government hiring anticipated to have rebounded by 20,000, that would lead to overall payrolls rising by 550,000 jobs.
The economy created 531,000 jobs in October.
(Reporting by Lucia Mutikani; Editing by Chizu Nomiyama)
