While Meta and other big tech firms are preparing for their next round of layoffs, the broad market added jobs at a fairly aggressive pace in February.
Private payrolls increased by 242,000 for the month, ahead of the estimated 205,000.
Wage growth decelerated slightly, with those remaining in their jobs seeing a 7.2% annual increase, down 0.1 percentage point from a month ago.
The report comes with Federal Reserve officials watching jobs data closely for clues on where inflation is headed.
There’s a tradeoff in the labor market right now: robust hiring, which is good for the economy and workers, but pay growth isn’t quite as elevated.
The modest slowdown in pay increases, on its own, is unlikely to drive down inflation rapidly in the near-term.
By sector: leisure and hospitality led job growth with 83,000 additions. Financial activities added 62,000, while manufacturing showed a robust 43,000 gain as the industry benefited from a somewhat broad mild winter.
Other areas showing increases included education and health services (35K), the “other services” category (34K), and natural resources and mining (25K).
Professional and business services lost 36,000 jobs, while construction also suffered 16,000 job losses as well.
All of the job additions came from companies employing 50 or more workers.
Small businesses saw a net loss of 61,000, most of which came at establishments employing fewer than 20 people.
The ADP report serves as a precursor to the more closely followed nonfarm payrolls report. The Labor Department is scheduled to release this report on Friday.
Friday’s report is expected to show growth of 225,000 jobs in February, with the unemployment rate holding steady at 3.4%.
Continued strong data supports the Feds efforts in combating inflation through the adjustments of interest rates.
Much of the country operates on debt. When the debt costs more, job losses will eventually increase broadly.
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