The employment report prepared by Automatic Data Processing Inc. (ADP) and Moody's Analytics showed on Wednesday the U.S. private employers added 291,000 jobs in January.

Economists had expected a gain of 155,000.

The increase for December was revised down to 199,000 from the originally reported 202,000.

"The labor market experienced expanded payrolls in January," noted Ahu Yildirmaz, vice president and cohead of the ADP Research Institute. "Goods producers added jobs, particularly in construction and manufacturing, while service providers experienced a large gain, led by leisure and hospitality. Job creation was strong among midsized companies, though small companies enjoyed the strongest performance in the last 18 months."

Meanwhile, Mark Zandi, chief economist of Moody's Analytics, said, "Mild winter weather provided a significant boost to the January employment gain. The leisure and hospitality and construction industries in particular experienced an outsized increase in jobs. Abstracting from the vagaries of the data underlying job growth is close to 125,000 per month, which is consistent with low and stable unemployment."