Companies added workers in October, easing concern the job market is stagnating in the third year of the U.S. recovery, according to a private report based on payrolls.
The 110,000 increased followed a revised 116,000 gain the prior month, Roseland, New Jersey-based ADP Employer Services said today. The median forecast of economists surveyed by Bloomberg News called for a advance of 100,000.
A pickup in private hiring is needed to help reduce unemployment and boost consumer spending, which accounts for about 70 percent of the economy. Businesses added 125,000 jobs in October and the jobless rate was 9.1 percent for a fourth straight month, economists in a Bloomberg survey projected ahead of a Labor Department report Nov. 4.
“Hiring isn’t strong enough to decrease the unemployment rate,” Sean Incremona, a senior economist at 4Cast Inc. in New York, said before the report. “The labor market will stay under pressure.”
Projections in the Bloomberg survey ranged from 38,000 to 150,000.
Last month, ADP’s initial figures showed a 91,000 gain in company payrolls for September, while the Labor Department’s data showed an increase of 137,000 in private payrolls.
