The U.S. private sector added 246,000 new jobs in January, outpacing economists projections for the start of 2017.
Economists polled by Reuters and Econoday originally expected the private employers to add between 140,000 to 200,000 jobs in January. Even the most robust estimates fell some 25 percent short of the realized private sector employment gains. January was the fastest pace of job growth since June of last year.
U.S. manufacturing also reported gains in January, adding 15,000 new jobs last month. January also marked the fifth consecutive month of employment gains in the manufacturing industry.
The private sector job numbers come out just two days before the U.S. Department of Labor’s comprehensive non-farm payroll report. Modest projections are for the non-farm sector to have added 175,000 jobs in January, Reuters reports. Others are making more bullish projections, suggesting that the non-farm employment will add 190,000 new jobs in January, according to economists surveyed by MarketWatch.
The unemployment rate is expected to remain steady at 4.7 percent.
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