A job seeker holds a "We're Hiring" card while talking to a representative from Target at a City of Boston Neighborhood Career Fair on May Day in Boston, Massachusetts, U.S., May 1, 2017. REUTERS/Brian Snyder
(Reuters) – U.S. private employers added 177,000 jobs in April, slightly above economists’ expectations, a report by a payrolls processor showed on Wednesday.
Economists surveyed by Reuters had forecast the ADP National Employment Report would show a gain of 175,000 jobs, with estimates ranging from 140,000 to 236,000.
Private payroll gains in the month earlier were revised down to 255,000 from an originally reported 263,000 increase.
The report is jointly developed with Moody’s Analytics.
The ADP figures come ahead of the U.S. Labor Department’s more comprehensive non-farm payrolls report on Friday, which includes both public and private-sector employment.
Economists polled by Reuters are looking for U.S. private payroll employment to have grown by 185,000 jobs in April, up from 89,000 the month before. Total non-farm employment is expected to have risen by 185,000.
The unemployment rate is forecast to tick up to 4.6 percent from the 4.5 percent recorded a month earlier.
(Reporting by Richard Leong; Editing by Chizu Nomiyama)
