— Mark Zandi, Moody's Analytics
US private companies created more than expected jobs last month, official figures showed on Thursday. The ADP National Employment Report revealed that the US private sector added 253K new jobs to the economy in May, compared to the preceding month's downwardly revised gain of 174K positions. Meanwhile, analysts expected private firms to create 181K new jobs during the reported month. The Moody's Analytics Chief Economist Mark Zandi said that wage growth would likely accelerate "through the year into 2018" amid the tightening labour market. Strong job creation is expected to comfy the Federal Reserve and force it to raise interest rates further in the upcoming months. The ADP data come ahead of the Labour Department's non-farm payrolls report, scheduled to be released on Friday. According to analysts, both US private and public sector created 181K new jobs last month, following April's gain of 211K new positions. Moreover, the jobless rate is set to come in at 4.4% for May, unchanged from the previous month. Economists suggest that the US labour market is close to or at full employment.
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