Dec. 1 (UPI) -- The U.S. labor market added more than a half-million private-sector jobs during the month of November, a stout figure that shows some economic resiliency in the face of rising inflation and new coronavirus variants like Omicron.
ADP and Moody's Analytics said in their monthly report Wednesday that the economy added 534,000 private jobs, almost 30,000 more than most analysts expected.
"The labor market recovery continued to power through its challenges last month," ADP Chief Economist Nela Richardson said in a statement.
"November's job gains bring the three-month average to 543,000 monthly jobs added, a modest uptick from the job pace earlier this year."
The report said the service sector added the most new jobs, 424,000. Within that sector, leisure and hospitality posted 136,000 hires and business services about 100,000.
Large businesses accounted for 277,000 of the new jobs and medium-sized businesses accounted for 142,000. Small businesses were responsible for 115,000, ADP and Moody's said.
"Job gains have eclipsed 15 million since the recovery began, though 5 million jobs short of prepandemic levels," Richardson added. "Service providers, which are more vulnerable to the pandemic, have dominated job gains this year."
Richardson said the Omicron coronavirus variant is a wildcard for the job market going forward, since it's still so new. The variant, which has already resulted in new international travel restrictions, has not yet officially been found in the United States.
"It's too early to tell if the Omicron variant could potentially slow the jobs recovery in coming months," Richardson said.
The Labor Department will release its November jobs report on Friday. Most economists expect the report to show about 500,000 new jobs. There were 531,000 new hires during the month of October.