While the partial government shutdown did create a strain on families waiting for paychecks — a strain that was exacerbated by the left voting “no” on getting those families paid during the shutdown — the private sector outperformed expectations in January.
According to Automatic Data Processing’s (ADP) National Employment report, the private sector smashed “Wall Street’s expectations” for January (178,000 jobs) by an astonishing 35,000 jobs (213,000 jobs).
According to Fox Business:
The services-providing sector added the most jobs, at 145,000, followed by services-providing at 68,000[…]
In December, the private sector added a whopping 271,000 jobs -- soaring past analysts’ expectations of 178,000. Manufacturing, meanwhile, added the most jobs in more than four years.
Private sector numbers over the last two months may have been impacted by those affected by the partial government shutdown. As the Washington Post reported, 800,000 federal employees were affected by the shutdown. It’s possible that some of those people went looking for additional jobs to make ends meet while the left prevented them from getting paid.
Whatever the case may be, the private sector has still grown at a rate that make the estimates look bad. If nothing else, at least people have the drive to actually want to work.