Companies south of the border kept up the hiring pace in March, adding 241,000 positions as employment in construction and manufacturing surged, according to a report Wednesday from ADP and Moody's Analytics.
Economists had been expecting the report to show that private payrolls in the U.S. had gained by 205,000.
This was the fifth straight month the ADP/Moody's survey showed private payrolls up by at least 200,000, though March saw a slight decline from the upwardly revised 246,000 in February. On a year-over-year basis, March 2018 nearly doubled the 122,000 total from the previous year.
The survey showed job gains as being broad-based, spread across both business size and sector.
Service providers added 176,000 while goods-producing industries contributed 65,000. Construction added 31,000 jobs, and manufacturing gained 29,000.
On the services side, professional and business led with 44,000, while trade, transportation and utilities was next with 40,000. Health-care and social assistance added 28,000 while leisure and hospitality grew by 26,000.
The report comes two days ahead of the closely watched non-farm payrolls report from the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics. Wall Street is looking for growth of about 185,000 and a decline in the unemployment rate to 4% from 4.1%.
