The jobs economy took a nice step forward in March with a third consecutive month of job gains and the best month of private sector jobs gains since September. According to the ADP Report, there were 517,000 private sector jobs gained. That included over 174,000 for small businesses, +188,000 for midsized, and over 155,000 for large businesses.
The board gains with small businesses outpace large companies. That’s exactly what we want to see in a job's recovery. This dynamic is especially encouraging. Small businesses are leading economic indicators and typically are only hiring when the real-time demand is there to necessitate it.
The top industries for hiring in March were leisure and hospitality at number one, trade, transportation and utilities came in second, and in third professional and business services.
The news was good just about everywhere including a gain of 49,000 manufacturing jobs. The fly in the ointment came in the form of the energy sector. The Biden administration's policy to limit the harvesting natural resources showed up again as 1,000 additional jobs were lost in the sector during March. That’s especially unusual with the cost of most commodities rising, which generally leads to an expansion of jobs in those industries. This illustrates the rising cost of commodities coming largely from less production.
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