ADP National Employment Report: Private Sector Employment Increased by 183,000 Jobs in February

Staff Report

Friday, March 6th, 2020

Private sector employment increased by 183,000 jobs from January to February according to the February ADP National Employment Report.  Broadly distributed to the public each month, free of charge, the ADP National Employment Report is produced by the ADP Research Institute® in collaboration with Moody's Analytics.  The report, which is derived from ADP's actual payroll data, measures the change in total nonfarm private employment each month on a seasonally-adjusted basis.  

February 2020 Report Highlights*

Total U.S. Nonfarm Private Employment:     183,000

By Company Size

- Small businesses:      24,000

1-19 employees      8,000

20-49 employees      16,000

- Medium businesses:      26,000

50-499 employees      26,000

- Large businesses:      133,000

500-999 employees      5,000

1,000+ employees      128,000

By Sector

- Goods-producing:      11,000

Natural resources/mining      -3,000

Construction      18,000

Manufacturing      -4,000

- Service-providing:      172,000

Trade/transportation/utilities      31,000

Information      -2,000

Financial activities      9,000

Professional/business services      38,000
     - Professional/technical services      12,000
     - Management of
       companies/enterprises      1,000
     - Administrative/support services      25,000

Education/health services      46,000
     - Health care/social assistance      43,000
     - Education      2,000

Leisure/hospitality      44,000

Other services      7,000

* Sum of components may not equal total, due to rounding.

- Franchise Employment**

Franchise jobs     20,800

"The labor market remains firm, as private-sector payrolls continued to expand in February," said Ahu Yildirmaz, vice president and co-head of the ADP Research Institute. "Job creation remained heavily concentrated in large companies, which continue to be the strongest performer."

Mark Zandi, chief economist of Moody's Analytics, said, "COVID-19 will need to break through the job market firewall if it is to do significant damage to the economy. The firewall has some cracks, but judging by the February employment gain it should be strong enough to weather most scenarios."

The matched sample used to develop the ADP National Employment Report was derived from ADP payroll data, which represents 460,000 U.S. clients employing nearly 26 million workers in the U.S.  The January total of jobs added was revised down from 291,000 to 209,000.

In February's report, the following scheduled annual revisions have been reflected in the estimates of employment shown in the ADP National Employment Report:

Adjustments of historical job growth estimates consistent with Quarterly Census of Employment and Wages (QCEW) data through March 2019 and the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics' annual benchmarking process.

Incorporation of March 2019 industry and size class data from the QCEW in the generation process.