- ADP report shows 807,000 private non-farm jobs added in December
- Larger companies accounted for much of the gain, though 204,000 jobs were added at small businesses
- The data reflects the waning effect of the COVID-19 Delta variant, but does not capture any fallout from the emergence of the Omicron variant
Summary by Dirk Langeveld
Private non-farm employers in the United States added 807,000 new jobs in December, according to the latest report from the ADP Research Institute.
The figure marked a gain from November’s downwardly revised tally of 505,000. The report from the payroll services provider is often regarded as a preview of the Department of Labor’s jobs report, which will be released on Friday, though the jobs numbers sometimes differ substantially.
Nela Richardson, chief economist at ADP, said December’s trends reflect a decline in COVID-19 concerns caused by the Delta variant but occurred before the rampant spread of the virus’s Omicron variant. She said the job gains were broad-based, with goods producers showing their strongest reading of 2021.
“December’s job growth brought the fourth quarter average to 625,000, surpassing the 514,000 average for the year,” said Richardson. “While job gains eclipsed 6 million in 2021, private sector payrolls are still nearly 4 million jobs short of pre-COVID-19 levels.”
- 204,000 jobs were added at small businesses, including 104,000 with one to 19 employees and 100,000 at businesses with 20 to 49 employees
- Another 214,000 jobs were added at midsized companies with 50 to 499 employees, while 389,000 were added at larger companies – 70,000 at companies with 500 to 999 employees and 319,000 at companies with 1,000 or more employees
- 669,000 jobs were added in the services producing sector, led by leisure and hospitality (246,000), trade, transportation, and utilities (138,000), and professional and business services (130,000)
- 138,000 jobs were added in the goods producing sector, led by 74,000 in manufacturing and 62,000 in construction
