WASHINGTON (Pakistan Point News / Sputnik - 04th May, 2022) Private employers in the United States added 247,000 jobs in April, just about half of the number reported in March and the smallest in two years as the labor market hovered at full employment,� the private payrolls processor ADP said on Wednesday.
"In April, the labor market recovery showed signs of slowing as the economy approach(ed) full employment," ADP Chief Economist Nela Richardson said in a statement. "While hiring demand remains strong, labor supply shortages caused job gains to soften for both goods producers and services providers."
ADP historical data showed the monthly addition to private sector jobs to be smallest since April 2020 - a time when the labor market was facing record unemployment in the aftermath of the coronavirus outbreak.
Economists polled by US media had predicted 382,500 new private sector jobs on average for April.
"By a narrow margin, this is the worst reading since the early days of the pandemic," economist Adam Button said in a post on the ForexLive platform. "The fall in small business employment is a bit of a concern but ... jobs are plentiful and unemployment is at generational lows."
Richardson made a similar point, highlighting that "as the labor market tightens, small companies, with fewer than 50 employees, struggle with competition for wages amid increased costs."
Joblessness in the United States reached a record high of 14.8% in April 2020, with the loss of some 20 million jobs in the aftermath of the coronavirus breakout. Jobs recovery has, however, been strong over the past year, with the unemployment rate moving down to 3.6% at the end of March.
A jobless rate of 4% or below is regarded by the Federal Reserve as maximum employment. Federal Reserce Chairman Jerome Powell said last month that the labor market was "extremely tight" with robust demand and subdued supply. Powell also noted that more than a million positions were filled within the first two months of the year due to robust economic growth.
The US economy grew by 5.7% in 2021, expanding at its fastest pace in four decades, after a 3.5% contraction in 2020 from coronavirus-related disruptions.
The United States is experiencing one of the greatest transformations of its employment market as COVID-19 measures upended labor supply and work trends, putting employees' demands above those of employers.
The ADP report came ahead of Friday's all-important US non-farm payrolls report for April from the Labor Department, which is expected to cite a jobs growth of 391,000 last month and an unemployment rate of 3.5%.
