U.S. "Small Non-Farm" Jobs Increase by 63,000, Surpassing Expectations, Indicating Signs of Stabilization in the Labor Market

Cailian Press, March 4 (Editor Zhao Hao) The latest “Small Non-Farm” report exceeded expectations, reflecting signs of stabilization in the U.S. labor market.

Before the opening of U.S. stocks on Wednesday (March 4), data from Automatic Data Processing, Inc. (ADP) showed that private sector employment increased by 63,000 jobs in February, the highest level since August last year, surpassing the market forecast of 50,000. However, January’s figure was revised down from 22,000 to 11,000.

Breakdown data shows that the entire goods industry added a total of 16,000 jobs, including construction with 19,000 new jobs, natural resources and mining with 2,000, and manufacturing with a decline of 5,000.

In the service sector, education and health services increased by 58,000, information industry by 11,000, finance by 2,000, leisure and hospitality by 1,000, and “other services” by 6,000.

At the same time, professional/business services decreased by 30,000, and trade/transportation/utilities decreased by 1,000.

By company size, employment at small businesses (1-49 employees) increased by 60,000 compared to the previous month, medium-sized businesses (50-499 employees) decreased by 7,000, and large businesses (over 500 employees) increased by 10,000.

The ADP report states that February’s hiring saw a significant increase, marking the best employment growth since July last year (when the increase was 104,000), led by construction, education, and healthcare sectors.

The report also shows that the wages of employees who changed jobs increased by 6.3% year-over-year, slowing down from January; the wage growth of retained employees remained at 4.5%.

Nela Richardson, Chief Economist at ADP, said: “We see an increase in hiring, and wage growth remains steady, especially for employees who did not change jobs.”

“However, since hiring is concentrated in a few industries, job hopping has not led to widespread wage increases. In fact, the wage premium from job changes in February fell to a record low.”

Analysts believe that this report indicates that after nearly stagnant employment growth at the beginning of the year, the labor market is slowly stabilizing.

As economic policy uncertainties decrease, some employers are ramping up hiring again, and tax cuts may also support investment and employment growth.

Previously, Federal Reserve officials generally stated that the labor market is stabilizing, which will allow them to keep interest rates unchanged in the short term, focusing more on stubborn inflation issues.