WASHINGTON — September looks like another mediocre month for job growth.
Private-sector employers added 162,000 jobs last month, according to a survey released Wednesday by payroll processor Automatic Data Processing Inc. That doesn’t bode well for the official monthly jobs report that will be issued Friday by the Labor Department.
ADP’s surveys have overshot the government’s tally by an average of about 50,000 in recent months. As such, economists largely stuck with their forecast for about 120,000 new jobs in September. That would be only a little better than the 96,000 added in August.
The ADP survey did show some hopeful signs. It said small employers, those with fewer than 50 workers, added half of the 162,000 jobs last month. That could mean there’s more hiring by mom-and-pop businesses and startups than what’s being picked up by government surveys. Another encouraging indicator was construction, which by ADP’s count added 10,000 to its payrolls in September.
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