Automatic Data Processing (ADP), a leading provider of payroll services, has released its February employment report, a report that it creates each month in association with Moody’s Analytics. According to their calculations, the national economy added 198,000 jobs (from nonfarm private employers) in February 2013. January’s job totals were also revised upward by 23,000 jobs, from 192,000 jobs added to 215,000.
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 Friday, March 8), so the analogous “architecture and engineering services” category can’t be plumbed for a comparison. (See last month’s federal jobs report story for more.) ADP and Moody’s do, however, break out the goods-producing segment into separate manufacturing and construction categories. After three prior months of job losses, manufacturing added 9,000 jobs in February; construction had its ninth straight month of job gains. The 21,000 construction jobs added is more than the 15,000 reported last month, but less than the 39,000 that ADP had reported in December.
There is a long way to go to replace the 2 million jobs that the construction industry sector lost when the housing bubble burst and the financial crisis hit, but the steady climb in employment is promising.
