US private-job growth leaps in November

Businesses boosted hiring in the United States in November by the largest gain in nearly a year, payrolls firm ADP said Wednesday. The private sector added a net 206,000 jobs in November, a strong increase from the prior month, ADP said. "The increase in November was the largest monthly gain since last December and nearly twice the average monthly gain since May when employment decelerated sharply," said the payroll processing firm. ADP revised sharply higher its October reading to 130,000 from an initial estimate of 110,000. The strong ADP number on private-business hiring came ahead of Friday's government job market data for November, a month increasingly looking better than expected amid a sharp surge in consumer confidence reported Tuesday. Ryan Sweet at Moody's Analytics noted the ADP gains were fairly broad-based. "If sustained, this would put the recovery on firmer ground and push the risk of another recession lower," he said. But Ian Shepherdson at High Frequency Economics cautioned that a seasonal adjustment quirk typically affects the November data, usually generating a number "well above" the underlying trend. "The danger now is that the big headline ramps up expectations for Friday and disappointment ensues," Shepherdson said. Most analysts expect the Friday data will show that the private sector added 141,000 jobs in November, offset by a decrease in public-sector positions that would leave total net jobs created at 123,000. The unemployment rate was forecast to remain unchanged at 9.0 percent from October. Since May 2009 the jobless rate has been stuck at 9.0 percent or higher, except for two months this year, in February and March.