WASHINGTON -- U.S. companies reported a modest gain of 153,000 jobs last month, all in service industries such as retail and health care, according to a private survey.
Payroll provider ADP said Thursday that hotels and restaurants added 18,000 jobs in December, while higher-paying professional and business services, such as engineering, added 24,000. Manufacturers lost 9,000 jobs, and construction companies shed 2,000.
Businesses added 215,000 jobs in November, the strongest showing since June.
The report points to ongoing, if moderate, job growth. Hiring averaged 174,000 jobs a month in 2016, according to ADP, down from an average of 209,000 in 2015.
"Job growth remains strong but is slowing," said Mark Zandi, chief economist at Moody's Analytics, which assists ADP in preparing its report.
"Smaller companies are struggling to maintain payrolls while large companies are expanding at a healthy pace," he said.
The economy picked up in the July-September quarter, expanding at a solid 3.5 percent annual rate, but growth over the entire year is expected to be sluggish. Still, consumer confidence has jumped since the November elections, particularly among Republican voters, and the stock market is near record highs.
Businesses also are confident enough in future growth to hold on to their workers. Applications for unemployment benefits, a proxy for layoffs, fell to nearly the lowest level since 1973.
The ADP data cover only private businesses and often diverge from official figures. Economists forecast that the government's jobs report, to be released today, will show a gain of 173,000, according to data provider FactSet.
That report also may show that the unemployment rate ticked up to 4.7 percent in December, up from 4.6 percent the previous month, economists expect. Still, that low rate suggests employers may have to offer higher pay to attract and keep workers. That could deliver broader pay gains for more Americans.
The drop in the number of Americans seeking unemployment benefits last week was significant, a sign of a robust job market.
Weekly requests for unemployment aid fell 28,000 to a seasonally adjusted 235,000, the Labor Department said Thursday. That is barely above the 233,000 claims achieved in late November, the lowest weekly total since 1973. The less volatile four-week moving average for claims fell 5,750 to 256,750.
During the past 12 months, the number of people receiving benefits has tumbled 5 percent to 2.1 million.
The historically low level of applications for unemployment benefits suggests that employers are holding on to workers and likely looking to add jobs. Weekly claims have stayed below the critical threshold of 300,000 for 96-straight weeks, the longest streak since 1970.
Employers see the economy as continuing its seven-year expansion this year.
Information for this article was contributed by Christopher S. Rugaber and Josh Boak of The Associated Press and by Jim Puzzanghera of the Los Angeles Times.
Business on 01/06/2017