A.D.P. reported United States (U.S.) private sector employers added 170,000 positions in January. December added a revised 292,000 number of jobs. For January, analysts projected growth of 182,000. Despite this, the past three month (November, December, and January) average calculated to 223,000 a higher monthly average compared to the mean for all of 2011 at 163,000, according to ADP. Some of the largest job additions were in service and goods production sectors at 152,000 and 18,000 respectively. Additionally, manufacturing created an additional 10,000 positions. Small and medium size companies contributed the most of all businesses in additions to the employment numbers. Small business added the most positions at 95,000 while medium sized businesses added 72,000. Larger companies (those employing greater than 499 persons) only added 3,000 new people. The United States Labor Department will release their job figures this Friday. Economists expect unemployment to stay at 8.5% and analysts forecast nonfarm payroll employment numbers will have increased by 125,000 for January.
