WASHINGTON, Feb. 5 (Xinhua) -- A report released on Wednesday showed that the U.S. private sector added 183,000 jobs in January, as the job market continued to cool.
The latest National Employment Report was produced by Automatic Data Processing (ADP), in collaboration with the Stanford Digital Economy Lab.
The latest data showed that job growth in the private sector accelerated compared to previous months. In November, the total number of jobs added remained unchanged at 146,000, while the December total number of jobs added was upwardly revised from 122,000 to 176,000.
"We had a strong start to 2025, but it masked a dichotomy in the labor market," said Nela Richardson, chief economist at ADP. "Consumer-facing industries drove hiring, while job growth was weaker in business services and production."
In service-providing sectors, job growth totaled 190,000 in January, with 54,000 jobs added in leisure and hospitality and 14,000 jobs added in professional and business services.
Meanwhile, manufacturing saw a loss of 13,000 jobs, marking a decline for the fourth straight month.
The ADP report came two days before the crucial monthly employment report to be released by the Labor Department's Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS), which will include employment data from both the private sector and the government.
The Trump administration is taking broad initiative to reduce government jobs. Federal employees recently received an email from the government's personnel office urging them to find "higher productivity" jobs in the private sector.
