WASHINGTON (Reuters) – U.S. private payrolls increased far less than expected in January, hinting at some cooling in the labor market.
Private employment increased by 106,000 jobs last month, the ADP National Employment report showed on Wednesday.
Data for December was revised higher to show 253,000 jobs added instead of 235,000 as previously reported. Economists polled by Reuters had forecast private jobs increasing 178,000.
The ADP report, jointly developed with the Stanford Digital Economy Lab, was published ahead of the Labor Department’s Bureau of Labor Statistics’ more comprehensive and closely watched employment report for January on Friday. It has been a poor predictor of private payrolls in the BLS employment report.
According to a Reuters survey of economists, nonfarm payrolls likely increased by 185,000 jobs in January after rising by 223,000 in December.
The Fed is expected to raise its policy rate by 25 basis points on Wednesday. The U.S. central bank last year hiked this rate by 425 basis points from near zero to a 4.25%-4.50% range, the highest since late 2007.
(Reporting by Lucia Mutikani; Editing by Chizu Nomiyama)
