The U.S. economy added 139,000 private-sector jobs in February, according to the monthly employment report released by payroll-processing firm ADP and their partner Moody’s Analytics. This number reflects a slight increase from the revised January figure of 127,000—which was previously reported as 175,000.
The construction industry added 14,000 over the month, following downwardly-revised figures of 17,000 in the prior two months. Moody’s Analytics chief economist Mark Zandi attributes those downwardly-revised numbers in part to the weather. “It was really, really cold in December. When it’s really cold, construction workers don’t work. But the survey week for ADP was one of the warmest weeks of the month and those construction workers went back to work. In this case, I think we saw the direct effects of weather,” Zandi said in a conference call.
Despite the unpredictable weather in the last few months, Zandi says: “I expect the housing market to kick into higher gear later this year.”
The manufacturing industry added a meager 1,000 jobs last month, but this follows January’s loss of 7,000—previously reported as a loss of 12,000 jobs.
Service-providing industries rose by 120,000 jobs in February, with professional and business services contributing the most to this growth. An increase of 33,000 jobs is well below the 2013 monthly average for the professional and business services sector, a broad category that most likely includes architects and engineers.
The U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics report is scheduled for release on Friday morning, providing more detailed information about the economic state of the construction and architecture fields.
