There is a sign on the wall of a Target store in Miami, Florida.
According to a report from payroll processing firm ADP, companies hired at the fastest pace in seven months in December, ahead of concerns over surging Covid cases.
Private job growth was 807,000 for the month, well ahead of the 375,000 and 505,000 that were expected. The revised total was 534,000.
The total was the best since May 2021, when the figure was 882,000.
Leisure and hospitality had 246,000 new positions. Professional and business services increased by 130,000 and education and health services added 85,000.
Service-related professions led with 669,000 new hires. Construction contributed 62,000 to the total.
The job gains came the same month that Covid cases spiked, renewing fears of an economic downturn. The US has passed one million new positive cases a day because of the omicron variant.
The report covers through the middle of December before the worst of the escalation.
Nela Richardson, the chief economist at Automatic Data Processing, said the job market strengthened in December as the Delta variant faded and Omicron's impact had yet to be seen. Goods producers added the strongest reading of the year, while service providers dominated growth.
The nonfarm payrolls report from the Bureau of Labor Statistics is expected to show growth of 422,000, according to the consensus estimate.
For the 12 months prior to December, the BLS averaged 483,500, while the ADP tally averaged about 441,000 a month.
Businesses with 500 or more employees added 389,000 jobs in December. Medium-sized firms added 214,000, while companies with fewer than 50 workers contributed 204,000.
Unemployment claims are running around their lowest levels in more than 50 years, as the rapid pace of hiring shows.
Total employment is still below pre-pandemic levels. The labor force participation rate is 1.5 percent points less than it was in February 2020, and 3.6 million fewer Americans are at work, even with the unemployment rate dropping from 14.8% to 4.2%.
