U.S. Companies Added 325,000 Jobs: ADP [View all]

[Purveyor]

Companies added more workers than forecast in December, a sign that the U.S. labor market was gaining momentum heading into 2012, according to a private report based on payrolls.

The 325,000 increase was the highest in records going back to 2001 and exceeded the highest projection in a Bloomberg News survey after a revised 204,000 gain the prior month, the report from the Roseland, New Jersey-based ADP Employer Services showed today. The median estimate called for an advance of 178,000.

An acceleration in hiring may spur further gains in consumer spending, which accounts for about 70 percent of the world’s largest economy. A Labor Department report tomorrow may show payrolls rose by 150,000, not enough to keep the unemployment rate (USURTOT) from rising to 8.7 percent, economists in a Bloomberg survey projected.

“We certainly are seeing resilience in the job market,” said Sean Incremona, a senior economist at 4cast Inc. in New York. “We’ve seen some improvement versus earlier in 2011 and it’s encouraging.”

MORE...

http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2012-01-05/u-s-company-payrolls-expanded-by-a-more-than-estimated-325-000-adp-says.html