Yesterday, Automatic Data Processing (ADP), a leading provider of payroll services, released its January employment report, which it creates each month in association with Moody’s Analytics. According to their calculations, the national economy added 192,000 jobs (from nonfarm private employers) in January. December’s job totals were also revised downward by 30,000 jobs, from 215,000 jobs added to 185,000.
ADP and Moody’s report doesn’t break down the data in as detailed a way as does the U.S. Department of Labor’s Bureau of Labor Statistics in its monthly report (due to be released tomorrow), so the analogous “architecture and engineering services” category can’t be plumbed for a comparison. (See last month’s jobs report story for more.) ADP and Moody’s do, however, break out the goods-producing segment into separate manufacturing and construction categories. Manufacturing had a third straight month of job losses (losing 3,000 jobs), but construction had the eighth straight month of job gains. The 15,000 jobs added to the construction segment in January is less than the 39,000 reported in December. While 15,000 construction jobs added in a month come nowhere close to replacing the 2 million jobs that the industry sector has lost since the peak of the housing bubble, the steady climb in employment is promising.
