Inside the ADP Report... February's job growth was exceptional
Bottom Line: After a strong start for jobs in January, February showed that the economy is still looking to grow full speed ahead. In the February report 235,000 private sector jobs were added and a positive revision of 10,000 jobs were added to January to produce the 4th consecutive month of 200,000 or greater jobs being added. What's more is that the news was good everywhere. Companies of all sizes and of virtually all industries.
Here's the breakout of jobs added by company size:
Small: +68,000
Medium: +97,000
Large: +70,000
And the top sectors for growth...
Leisure & Hospitality: 50,000
Professional & Business services: 46,000
Trade, Transportation & Utilities: 44,000
Education & Health: 43,000
We also saw renewed strength in the comeback story of 2017 - manufacturing. Nationally 14,000 manufacturing jobs were added in February. With the lowest new unemployment claims in nearly 49 years and lowest unemployment rate in over 17 years, these numbers are extremely impressive. It's also a big part of the reason we're seeing the biggest year-over-year increases in take home pay in 32 years. Through February wage growth averaged 4.8% - with a tight labor market that's getting tighter we're likely to continue to see that continue. 2018 has a chance of being the first full year of 3% plus growth start to finish in well over a decade. Job and wage growth like we're seeing is absolutely supportive of that type of economic growth.