118,000 New Private Sector Jobs in November Would Have Been 204,000 If Not For Hurricane Sandy

Mark Zandi, chief economist of Moody’s Analytics

Private sector employment increased by 118,000 jobs from October to November, according to the November ADP National Employment Report®, which is produced by Automatic Data Processing, Inc. (ADP®), a leading provider of human capital management solutions, 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. The October 2012 report, which reported job gains of 158,000, was revised down by 1,000 to 157,000 jobs.

Goods-producing employment rose by 4,000 jobs in November as gains in construction jobs of 23,000 more than offset the 16,000 decline in manufacturing employment.

Service-providing jobs increased by 114,000. Among the service industries reported by the ADP National Employment Report, trade/transportation/utilities services had the largest gain with 22,000 jobs added over the month. Professional/business services added 16,000 jobs and financial activities added 13,000 jobs in November.

Carlos A. Rodriguez, president and chief executive officer of ADP, said, “This month’s ADP National Employment Report shows an increase of 118,000 new jobs in November. Today’s report shows that year-to-date employment gains averaged 135,000 jobs per month.”

Mark Zandi, chief economist of Moody’s Analytics, said, “Superstorm Sandy wreaked havoc on the job market in November, slicing an estimated 86,000 jobs from payrolls. The manufacturing, retailing, leisure and hospitality, and temporary help industries were hit particularly hard by the storm. Abstracting from the storm, the job market turned in a good performance during the month. This is especially impressive given the uncertainty created by the Presidential election and the fast-approaching fiscal cliff. Businesses appear to be holding firm on their hiring and firing decisions.”