The employment report prepared by Automatic Data Processing Inc. (ADP) and Moody's Analytics showed on Wednesday the U.S. private employers added 202,000 jobs in December.

Economists had expected a gain of 160,000.

The increase for November was revised noticeably up to 124,000 from the originally reported 67,000.

"As 2019 came to a close, we saw expanded payrolls in December," noted Ahu Yildirmaz, vice president and co-head of the ADP Research Institute. "The service providers posted the largest gain since April, driven mainly by professional and business services. Job creation was strong across companies of all sizes, led predominantly by midsized companies."

Meanwhile, Mark Zandi, chief economist of Moody's Analytics, said, "Looking through the monthly vagaries of the data, job gains continue to moderate. Manufacturers, energy producers and small companies have been shedding jobs. Unemployment is low, but will begin to rise if job growth slows much further."