ADP Nonfarm Payrolls is a measure of non-farm private sector employment, which is obtained by utilizing an anonymous subset of roughly 400,000 U.S. businesses, which are clients of ADP. Typically, an increase in employment fuels growth in the American economy, while a decrease in employment slows growth.
In March, private sector employment surged by 516,797 to 120.4 million, the largest gain since September. Payrolls in the manufacturing industry increased by 79,714 to a total of 20.3 million, while the services sector added 437,082 jobs, totaling 100.1 million. Small businesses added 174,000 jobs, medium-sized businesses added 188,000 jobs, and large businesses added 155,000 new jobs.
Payrolls increased for the third consecutive month as the labor market slowly approaches its pre-pandemic levels. Growth in the service sector outpaced the recent monthly average, led by considerable growth in the leisure and hospitality industry. The sector still has a lot of room to grow, especially as vaccinations become more widespread and the remaining restrictions on businesses are able to be lifted. Nearly every other industry added jobs last month, with the exception of information services and natural resources and mining—although their losses were relatively small compared to the total gain in payrolls. Besides leisure and hospitality, the industries that added the most payrolls last month were transportation and utilities, business services, and education and health.
March 31, 2021