Investing.com - Private employers in the U.S. added more roles than anticipated in March, the ADP National Employment Report showed on Wednesday, even as questions persisted around the impact of President Donald Trump’s tariff plans on the American labor market.
Private payrolls increased by 155,000 last month, rising from an upwardly-revised level of 84,000 in February. Economists had anticipated a reading of 118,000.
"Despite policy uncertainty and downbeat consumers, the bottom line is this: The March topline number was a good one for the economy and employers of all sizes, if not necessarily all sectors," said Nela Richardson, Chief Economist at ADP.
Trump is expected to reveal a fresh batch of tariffs at a White House Rose Garden event at 16:00 ET (20:00 GMT) on Wednesday, which some believe could upend the longstanding rules-based international trade order and escalate global trade tensions. The president has made tariffs a centerpiece of his second term in office, arguing that these moves are necessary to correct trade imbalances, lift government revenues, and reshore lost manufacturing jobs.
However, many economists have warned the actions could push inflation higher and weigh on growth, potentially sending the U.S. economy into a recession.
Businesses have also flagged worries over the lingering uncertainty around the policy changes, noting that the murky outlook may affect spending and hiring plans. Data on Tuesday showed that U.S. manufacturing activity contracted in March, with demand weak and prices surging.
The ADP report, which is jointly conducted with the Stanford Digital Economy Lab, comes ahead of the publication of the all-important nonfarm payrolls report on Friday from the Labor Department’s Bureau of Labor Statistics, although there is no correlation between the two figures.
Overall nonfarm payrolls are tipped to have risen by 139,000 in March, compared with 151,000 in the prior month.
U.S. job openings were little changed in February, but still lower than expected. The U.S. Job Openings and Labor Turnover Survey, a proxy of labor demand, dipped to 7.568 million on the last day of February, down from an upwardly-revised prior level of 7.762 million. It has fallen by 877,000 over the year, data from the Bureau of Labor Statistics showed.
Economists had anticipated that the number would come in at 7.690 million.
Hiring remained steady at 5.4 million, with the amount of additions in all industries largely unchanged.