Hiring among Franchises Weak in October, Large Employers Gain

Franchised establishments in the United States had a change in the month of October of 13,000 jobs for a relatively weak gain. Restaurants and auto dealers hired the most in October with 8,400 and 6,900 hires respectively, according to the ADP National Franchise Report issued on October 31.

Hotels saw a drop of 2,000 jobs.

Although franchise hiring was weak for October, the American economy saw a strong gain of 227,000 jobs in nonfarm private employment on a seasonally-adjusted basis, according to ADP Research Institute in collaboration with Moody’s Analytics. Its reports are derived from its payroll services.

Businesses with less than 50 employees are categorized as small businesses. Small businesses in the United States had a growth of 29,000 hires, while large and medium-sized businesses hired for 198,000 jobs, the lion’s share of job recruits.

“Despite a significant shortage in skilled talent, the labor market continues to grow,” said Ahu Yildirmaz, vice president and co-head of the ADP Research Institute.”We saw significant gains across all industries with trade and leisure and hospitality leading the way. We continue to see larger employers benefit in this environment as they are more apt to provide the competitive wages and strong benefits employees desire.”

The economy is at 3.7 percent rate of unemployment, unchanged from September, according to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, which released its employment situation report last Friday.

Mark Zandi, chief economist of Moody’s Analytics, said, “The job market bounced back strongly last month despite being hit by back-to-back hurricanes. Testimonial to the robust employment picture is the broad-based gains in jobs across industries. The only blemish is the struggles small businesses are having filling open job positions.”