Inside the ADP Report – Private Sector Job growth ended 2019 with a boom
Bottom Line: All signs I’d been studying suggested the US economy wasn’t just avoiding a recession to end 2019 but gaining strength heading towards 2020. The ADP private sector jobs report showed a surge in hiring straight through year end with exceptional growth across the board. In fact, the small business story is especially exciting. According to the report 202,000 private sector jobs were added in December. It’s a huge number, especially at this point in the economic cycle, with already near record low unemployment. The 202,000 jobs is the highest number added since April and when we take a closer look at where the jobs were added...
- Small businesses: +69,000
- Medium sized businesses: +88,000
- Large businesses: +45,000
We ended the year with the best month for small business job growth in 2019. That’s great for many reasons. First, it confirms that the reason small businesses had low hiring totals in recent months was due to inability to attract and hire the talent they wanted, not that demand had dramatically decreased. Second, small businesses are leading indicators in the economy. A surge in hiring is good for the businesses and the US economy in every measurable way. And this on the heels of what may have been the best government jobs report we’d ever received in November.
As for the industries adding the most...
- #1 Trade, transportation and utilities
- #2 Professional and business services
- #3 Education and healthcare
Additionally, we saw a surge in construction hiring in December. It's exciting pretty much everywhere you look. There’s no question the US economy is strong and likely is only becoming stronger. With near record low unemployment, record opportunity and prosperity already – this sets up what should be another outstanding government report Friday.