U.S. Private-Sector Employment Increased by 209,000 Jobs in March, According to ADP National Employment Report

ROSELAND, N.J., April 4, 2012 /PRNewswire/ -- Private-sector employment increased by 209,000 from February to March on a seasonally adjusted basis, according to the latest ADP National Employment Report® released today.  The ADP National Employment Report, created by Automatic Data Processing, Inc. (ADP®), in partnership with Macroeconomic Advisers, LLC, is derived from actual payroll data and measures the change in total nonfarm private employment each month.  Estimated gains for previous months were revised higher; the gain from December to January was revised up by 9,000 to 182,000, and the gain from January to February was revised up by 14,000 to 230,000.

U.S. Nonfarm Private Employment Highlights – March 2012 Report:

• Total employment:                         +209,000
• Small businesses:*                        +100,000 
• Medium businesses:**                     +87,000
• Large businesses:***                       +22,000
• Goods-producing sector:                 + 45,000
• Service-providing sector:                 +164,000

Addendum:

• Manufacturing industry:                   + 23,000

* Small businesses represent payrolls with 1-49 employees
** Medium businesses represent payrolls with 50-499 employees
*** Large businesses represent payrolls with more than 499 employees
Note:    All data included in the ADP National Employment Report is based on size of payroll.  In some cases, small and medium-size payrolls belong to businesses employing more workers than indicated by the size grouping.

According to today's ADP National Employment Report, employment in the nonfarm private business sector rose 209,000 from February to March on a seasonally adjusted basis.  Employment in the private, service-providing sector increased 164,000 in March, after rising a revised 183,000 in February.  Employment in the private, goods-producing sector rose 45,000 in March. Manufacturing employment increased 23,000, while construction employment advanced 13,000 and the financial services sector added 8,000 jobs during that period.

"During the first quarter of this year, monthly gains in employment shown in The ADP National Employment Report averaged 207,000 jobs, compared to 156,000 per month over all of 2011," said Carlos Rodriguez, President and CEO of ADP. "This is a positive development, and I would hope that job growth will be even more robust for the remainder of the year."

According to Joel Prakken, Chairman of Macroeconomic Advisers, LLC, "Labor market conditions continue to improve at a moderate pace.  Employment grew in all the major sectors of the economy tracked in The Report, and across payrolls of all sizes. Today's data marks the twenty-sixth consecutive monthly gain in private employment as measured in The Report.

"The March increase in private employment suggests that the national unemployment rate may have declined slightly last month.  It would also be consistent with other indicators suggesting some firming of labor market conditions, such as the downward trend in unemployment claims and upturns in the components of consumer sentiment and confidence influenced by perceptions about the availability of jobs."

Prakken added: "Employment on medium payrolls—those with 50 to 499 workers—rose 87,000 in March.  Employment on large payrolls—those with 500 or more workers—increased 22,000 during that same period."

The matched sample used to develop the ADP National Employment Report was derived from ADP data, which, during 2011, averaged about 344,000 U.S. business clients and represented over 21 million U.S. employees.  This approximately represents the size of the matched sample used this month.

Small Business Highlights – March Report:

Due to the important contribution small businesses make to economic growth, employment data that is specific to businesses with fewer than 50 employees is reported in the ADP Small Business Report^® each month.  The ADP Small Business Report is a subset of the ADP National Employment Report.^* 

Employment on small payrolls—those with up to 49 workers—rose 100,000 in March.  Small business service-providers created nearly five times as many jobs as their goods-producing peers.

• Total nonfarm private small business employment: 100,000 jobs created
  • Goods-producing sector: 17,000 small business jobs created
  • Service-providing sector: 83,000 small business jobs created

^*All size data included in the ADP National Employment Report is based on size of payroll.  In some cases, small and medium-size payrolls belong to businesses employing more workers than indicated by the size grouping.

Additional information about small business employment, including charts on monthly job growth and employment levels, along with historical data, is available at http://www.smallbusinessreport.adp.com.

To obtain additional information about the ADP National Employment Report, including additional charts, supporting data and the schedule of future release dates, or to subscribe to the monthly email alerts and RSS feeds, please visit www.ADPemploymentreport.com. 

The April 2012 ADP National Employment Report will be released May 2, 2012 at 8:15 AM ET.     

About the ADP National Employment Report^®

The ADP National Employment Report^®, sponsored by ADP^®, was developed and is maintained by Macroeconomic Advisers, LLC.  It is a measure of employment derived from an anonymous subset of roughly 500,000 U.S. business clients.  During 2011, this subset averaged about 344,000 U.S. business clients and represented over 21 million U.S. employees working in all private industrial sectors.  The ADP Small Business Report is a monthly estimate of private nonfarm employment among companies in the United States with 1-49 employees and is a subset of the ADP National Employment Report.  The data for both reports is collected for pay periods that can be interpolated to include the week of the 12th of each month, and processed with statistical methodologies similar to those used by the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics to compute employment from its monthly survey of establishments.  Due to this processing, this subset is modified to make it indicative of national employment levels; therefore, the resulting employment changes computed for the ADP National Employment Report are not representative of changes in ADP's total base of U.S. business clients.

For a description of the underlying data and the statistical properties of the series, please see "ADP National Employment Report: Development Methodology" at http://ADPemploymentreport.com/methodology.aspx.

About ADP

Automatic Data Processing, Inc. (NASDAQ: ADP), with about $10 billion in revenues and approximately 570,000 clients, is one of the world's largest providers of business outsourcing solutions. Leveraging over 60 years of experience, ADP offers a wide range of human resource, payroll, tax and benefits administration solutions from a single source. ADP's easy-to-use solutions for employers provide superior value to companies of all types and sizes. ADP is also a leading provider of integrated computing solutions to auto, truck, motorcycle, marine, recreational vehicle, and heavy equipment dealers throughout the world. For more information about ADP or to contact a local ADP sales office, reach us at 1.800.225.5237 or visit the company's Web site at www.ADP.com.

About Macroeconomic Advisers, LLC

Macroeconomic Advisers, LLC (MA) has been the most trusted source for U.S. macroeconomic forecasts and commentary, monetary and fiscal policy analysis, and econometric modeling for 25 years. MA's clients include leading financial service firms, nonfinancial corporations, key policymaking agencies of the U.S. government, as well as State and Foreign Government agencies.  Additional information on Macroeconomic Advisers, LLC is available on the company's website, www.MacroAdvisers.com.  

The ADP logo, ADP, ADP National Employment Report, and ADP Small Business Report are registered trademarks of ADP, Inc.

SOURCE ADP