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Private sector added twice as many jobs as expected in October

  • CNN
  • October 30, 2024
CNN

 — 

Ongoing labor strikes and back-to-back hurricanes weren't enough to knock the strong US jobs market off its feet: Private sector hiring blew past expectations in October, payroll processor ADP reported Wednesday.

Non-governmental employers added a robust 233,000 jobs in October, a sharp acceleration from the 159,000 net increase reported for September, according to ADP's latest National Employment Report.

Job gains were fully expected to drop off in October not only because of an ongoing slowdown in the labor market but also because the month's data would be influenced by three major events and their ripple effects: the ongoing Boeing machinists' strike, Hurricane Helene and Hurricane Milton.

"Even amid hurricane recovery, job growth was strong in October," Nela Richardson, chief economist at ADP, said in a statement. "As we round out the year, hiring in the US is proving to be robust and broadly resilient."

Wednesday's gains throttled economists' expectations for job growth to slow to a mere 108,000 jobs from the initial estimate of 143,000, FactSet estimates show.

While ADP's tabulations don't always correlate with the official jobs report from the Labor Department, it's sometimes viewed as a proxy for overall hiring activity. As such, ADP's report Wednesday provided one of the fuller looks to date as to what extent these temporary shocks could ultimately distort the seminal jobs report, which is scheduled to be released Friday morning.

Economists expect the federal jobs report to show an increase of 120,000 jobs, which would be fewer than half the strong 254,000 gains estimated in September, according to FactSet.