According to a tally from ADP, which provides services for payroll processing, the number of private-sector jobs added across the U.S. in December passed both what the same source initially reported for the prior month and prior estimates for December.
ADP’s December figure for private payroll growth was 235,000, which is way out ahead of an expectation of 153,000 available via Dow Jones and also passed the 127,000 jobs that ADP said earlier were added across the private sector in November. These numbers can sometimes significantly vary from the job reports released by federal sources. For November, earlier federal reports put private, nonfarm job growth in November at a much higher 263,000. The December job growth reported by ADP was largely in services rather than goods, with 123,000 jobs added in leisure and hospitality alone. ADP also reported an increase in annual wages of 7.3 percent, although that rate of growth in pay over the prior year’s figures could be significantly — although not entirely — offset by inflation. A November report from the Commerce Department (which is not the only available federal metric, although it’s widely watched) showed annual inflation at 5.5 percent in November.
ADP showed an even higher rate of wage growth in leisure and hospitality in its recently released numbers, putting those benefiting from those increases even further out ahead of estimates for the average rate of increase in prices, meaning these workers stand to benefit more directly from the pay raises. The leisure and hospitality rate of increase from the past year was 10.1 percent.
A Labor Department report on the job market was set for release Friday, with an expectation cited in CNBC that it would show 200,000 jobs added in December and the national unemployment rate staying at 3.7 percent. Throughout recent months, economic metrics have shown consistently positive signs including declines in the rates on both a month-to-month and annual basis of inflation. That same Commerce Department data showed the one-month rate of price increases falling to just 0.1 percent in November from October’s 0.4 percent, although July of last year saw what was evidently a slight drop. Numbers from the Labor Department have recently put some of these rates higher, including a 7.1 percent annual increase in November — although it had the month-to-month jump also at just 0.1 percent.
Further federal figures for December will be coming soon, including a Labor Department update on January 12. Predictions of an economic meltdown accompanying a Biden presidency just haven’t been proven realistic, no matter what odd proclamations of doom Trump is posting online this week.
