Investing.com - U.S. private employers added 227,000 jobs in October, above economists' expectations, a report by payrolls processor ADP showed on Wednesday.
Economists had expected the ADP nonfarm payrolls report to show a gain of 189,000 jobs.
Private sector payrolls increased by an downwardly revised 218,000 in the previous month.
“Despite a significant shortage in skilled talent, the labor market continues to grow,” Ahu Yildirmaz, vice president and co-head of the ADP Research Institute, said.
“We continue to see larger employers benefit in this environment as they are more apt to provide the competitive wages and strong benefits employees desire,” he added.
“The job market bounced back strongly last month despite being hit by back-to-back hurricanes,” Mark Zandi, chief economist of Moody’s Analytics, remarked.
“The only blemish is the struggles small businesses are having filling open job positions,” he concluded.
The ADP figures come ahead of the Labor Department's more comprehensive nonfarm payrolls report on Friday, which includes both public and private-sector employment.
In the government report, economists are expecting the U.S. economy to have added 191,000 jobs after adding 134,000 positions in September, while the unemployment rate is forecast to tick up to 3.8%.