by Calculated Risk on 1/30/2013 08:20:00 AM

From ADP:

Private sector employment increased by 192,000 jobs from December to January, according to the January ADP National Employment Report®, which is produced by ADP® ... in collaboration with Moody’s Analytics. The report, which is derived from ADP’s actual payroll data, measures the change in total nonfarm private employment each month on a seasonally-adjusted basis. The December 2012 report, which reported job gains of 215,000, was revised downward by 30,000 to 185,000 jobs.

Mark Zandi, chief economist of Moody’s Analytics, said, “The job market is slowly, but steadily, improving. Monthly job gains appear to have accelerated from near 150,000 to closer to 175,000. Construction is finally kicking into gear and more than offsetting the weakness in manufacturing. The recent gains may be overstating any improvement, particularly in the context of recent revivals in growth at the start of the past three years, but the gains are encouraging nonetheless.”

This was above the consensus forecast for 172,000 private sector jobs added in the ADP report. Note:  The BLS reports on Friday, and the consensus is for an increase of 155,000 payroll jobs in January, on a seasonally adjusted (SA) basis.

Note: ADP hasn't been very useful in predicting the BLS report.