by Calculated Risk on 1/05/2017 08:21:00 AM

From ADP:

Private sector employment increased by 153,000 jobs from November to December according to the December ADP National Employment Report®. ... 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.
...
“As we exit 2016, it’s interesting to note that the private sector generated an average of 174,000 jobs per month, down from 209,000 in 2015,” said Ahu Yildirmaz, vice president and head of the ADP Research Institute. “And while job gains in December were slightly below our monthly average, the U.S. labor market has experienced unprecedented seven years of growth that has brought us to near full employment. As we enter 2017, the tightening labor market will likely slow the growth.”

Mark Zandi, chief economist of Moody’s Analytics, said, “Job growth remains strong but is slowing. The gap between employment growth in the service economy and losses on the goods side persists. Smaller companies are struggling to maintain payrolls while large companies are expanding at a healthy pace.”

This was below the consensus forecast for 172,000 private sector jobs added in the ADP report. 

The BLS report for December will be released Friday, and the consensus is for 175,000 non-farm payroll jobs added in December.