U.S. private sector employers added more jobs than expected last month in a sign of steady improvement in the labor market, ahead of the closely watched non-farm payrolls from the U.S. Labor Department on Friday.
Employers added 217,000 jobs in February, the ADP Employer Services report showed on Wednesday, compared to expectations for a rise of 175,000.
Economists often refer to the ADP report to fine-tune their expectations for the payrolls numbers on Friday, though it is not always accurate in predicting the outcome.
"ADP has been so volatile relative to the Bureau of Labor Statistics payrolls over the last several months that it's unlikely that this will materially alter forecasts for Friday's numbers," said Theodore Littleton an IFR economist at Thomson Reuters.
U.S. stock index futures gained briefly following the data, but quickly lost ground as investors continued to be spooked by rising oil prices due to events in the Middle East.
Earlier on Wednesday, data showed the number of planned layoffs at U.S. firms rose in February to its highest level in 11 months as government and non-profit employers let workers go.
While the ADP private sector payrolls data and the U.S. Labor Dept data for private payrolls generally trend in the same direction over time, in the short term there are often discrepancies between the two data series.
Friday's larger employment report is expected to show a rise in private sector payrolls of 190,000 and a rise of 185,000 in overall non-farm payrolls.