Dive Brief:

• The December job report from payroll processor ADP said the private-sector construction industry added 48,000 people to its rosters last month, which is the most in any month since February 2006.
• The ADP report comes out ahead of monthly government employment figures, is based on information from companies and sometimes varies significantly from government calculations.
• The month before, the industry added 21,000 jobs, small by comparison with the December number.

Dive Insight:

The 48,000-job figure seemed strange to some economists because it came during a month in which weather is unfriendly to construction in many parts of the U.S. The company that does the number crunching for ADP, Moody's Analytics, said houses still get built in December and the job number came on the heels of a November report that home construction was happening at a clip not seen since 2008.