hiring among us privatesector employers gained momentum in february suggesting the labor market remained tight according to data from the adp national employment report released wednesday employment in the nonfarm private sector increased by 242000 in february accelerating from a 119000 gain in january adp said beating the 205000 rise expected by economists in a poll from the wall street journal januarys reading was upwardly revised from an initial estimate of 106000 were seeing robust hiring which is good for the economy and workers but pay growth is still quite elevated said nela richardson chief economist at adp the adp estimate is based on aggregated payroll data of more than 25 million us workers and is independent from the labor department official data the adp series can diverge considerably from the labor departments data employment gains were driven by mediumsized and large businesses which added 148000 and 160000 jobs respectively however small businesses shed jobs again 61000 in february adding to a downward trend that has been running since august by sector services providers created 190000 jobs with the leisure and hospitality sector adding 83000 payrolls and financial activities 62000 additional jobs goods producers added 52000 jobs with 43000 new payrolls in manufacturing and 25000 additional jobs in mining however the construction sector lost 16000 jobs annual wage growth slowed slightly in february to 72 from 73 in january according to the survey pay data is based on the salaries of almost 10 million individual employees over a 12month period the modest slowdown in pay increases on its own is unlikely to drive down inflation rapidly in the nearterm ms richardson said the us labor department is expected to release its employment report friday economists polled by the wall street journal expect nonfarm payrolls to increase by 225000 in february and the unemployment rate is forecast to be unchanged at 34