Private sector added 62K jobs in March

Private sector employers added 62,000 jobs in March, payroll giant ADP reported Wednesday, as annual pay grew 4.5% year over year. 

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The smallest business drove most of the job growth for the second month in a row, while hiring in trade, transportation and utilities continued to decline. Professional and business services, which includes accounting and tax preparation along with other services, added 1,000 jobs in March.

Small establishments with between one and 19 employees added 112,000 jobs, but that was partially offset by losses of 27,000 jobs in businesses with between 20 and 49 employees. Medium establishments with between 50 and 249 employees lost 26,000 jobs, while businesses with between 250 and 4999 gained 6,000 jobs. Large establishments with 500 or more employees lost 4,000 jobs.

Pay for people who stayed in their jobs grew 4.5% in March. For job-changers, year-over-year pay gains accelerated to 6.6% from 6.3%. In professional and business services, the average growth rate for job-stayers was 4.3%.

“Job-stayer pay growth is at 4.5% for the third month in a row,” said ADP chief economist Nela Richardson in a press call Wednesday. “That’s very strong at this point in the cycle. Jobs may be a bit modest when we look at the last couple of years, but pay is telling a different story. There’s still some tightness in this labor market.”

She pointed to ADP Research’s Today at Work survey, which the company released last week, in which it surveyed 39,000 workers in 36 countries around the world. “What we found is that only one in four workers report feeling that their jobs are secure, and in the United States, that’s just 28% of workers who have the confidence that their job will be safe from elimination,” said Richardson.

Separately, Paychex released its monthly Paychex Small Business Employment Watch on Tuesday, indicating that employment and wage growth among U.S. small businesses with fewer than 50 employees remained stable from February to March, the Small Business Jobs Index ticked up 0.04 percentage points from February to 98.81 in March, while hourly earnings growth for workers remained below 3% for the 17th month in a row in March at 2.66%.  Weekly hours worked growth (0.06%) was positive in March. The Midwest led the way for job growth for the 22nd month in a row in March, mainly due to the pace of employment growth in Wisconsin, Illinois and Ohio.