2021.03.3113:03:00UTC+00U.S. Private Sector Employment Increases At Fastest Rate Since September

Partly reflecting a jump in employment in the leisure and hospitality industry, payroll processor ADP released a report on Wednesday showing strong private sector job growth in the month of March.

ADP said private sector employment surged up by 517,000 jobs in March after climbing by an upwardly revised 176,000 jobs in February.

Economists had expected employment to jump by 550,000 jobs compared to the addition of 117,000 jobs originally reported for the previous month.

The increase in private sector employment in March reflected the strongest job growth since the spike of 821,000 jobs seen last September.

The report said employment in the service-providing sector shot up by 437,000 jobs, partly reflecting an increase of 169,000 leisure and hospitality jobs.

Employment in the goods-producing sector also climbed by 80,000 jobs amid job growth in both the manufacturing and construction industries.

"Job growth in the service sector significantly outpaced its recent monthly average, led with notable increase by the leisure and hospitality industry," said ADP chief economist Nela Richardson.

She added, "This sector has the most opportunity to improve as the economy continues to gradually reopen and the vaccine is made more widely available."

On Friday, the Labor Department is scheduled to release its more closely watched monthly jobs report, which includes both public and private sector jobs.

Economists currently expect employment to jump by 639,000 jobs in March after climbing by 379,000 jobs in February. The unemployment rate is expected to drop to 6.0 percent from 6.2 percent.