U.S. private sector employment significantly slowed down in February

The ADP employment report released on Wednesday showed that the growth of private employment in the United States slowed significantly in February. After revising upward to an increase of 186,000 in January, only 77,000 were added last month. A Reuters survey showed that private-sector jobs are expected to increase by 142,000 in February due to the fading drag from unusually low temperatures. The large-scale layoffs of federal employees are mostly probationary employees and employees of the U.S. Agency for International Development and are not expected to appear in the February employment report because they occurred outside of Employment Survey Week. It is estimated that Friday's overall non-farm employment will increase by 160,000 people, up from an increase of 143,000 people in January. The unemployment rate is expected to remain unchanged at 4.0%.