U.S job market adds 291K in private payrolls to kickstart the new year

According
to ADP and Moody’s Analytics, the U.S job market started the new year on a largely
positive note. In its report on Wednesday, ADP announced the job market to have
added 291K new positions in the private sector that marked the best monthly
reading since May 2015.

Dow
Jones’ survey had previously highlighted analysts’ estimate for January at a
significantly lower 150K in private payrolls. January’s data also came out
sharply higher than December’s 199K gain that was revised down from 202K that
was announced earlier. Wednesday’s data suggested that the United
States has a lot of ground to cover before it reaches full employment
despite its jobless rate having touched the lowest level in over 5 decades.

Leisure
And Hospitality Industry Leaded With 96K New Positions In January

ADP
further highlighted growth to be spread across multiple industries. The leisure
and hospitality industry took the lead and printed 96,000 new positions in
January. Following in its step was education and health services which noted
70,000 new jobs this month with professional and business services contributing
49,000 new positions, as per ADP’s report on Wednesday.

In
terms of goods-producing industries, construction took the lead with 47,000 new
payrolls in January. The reading marked the best for the construction industry since
January 2019 when it added 62,000 new positions instead. The
manufacturing sector, on the other hand, boasted a gain of 10,000 positions
this month that was branded the largest gain since February 2019.

All
in all, the services sector added 237K new positions in January while the
remaining 54K was contributed by the goods-producing industries. On the trade
transportation and utilities front, a gain of 8,000 payrolls was announced
while information and the financial sector accounted for a gain of 2,000 new
positions. Lastly, new jobs in mining and natural resources were also capped at
2,000 in January.

Response
In The Forex Market

The
response in the forex market, however, wasn’t too aggressive following the
release of the economic data. One of the most widely traded currency pairs,
EUR/USD dropped 20 pips to around 1.10 level on Wednesday. The drop was
extended further later in the day with the release of the ISM non-manufacturing
PMI. At the time of writing, the currency pair is trading around the 1.10 level
hinting at the drop below the crucial support failing to be sustainable once
again.