The employment report prepared by Automatic Data Processing Inc. (ADP) and Moody's Analytics showed on Wednesday the U.S. private employers added 174,000 jobs in January.

Economists had expected an increase of 49,000.

The December number saw an upward revision to -78,000 from the originally reported -123,000.

“The labor market continues its slow recovery amid COVID-19 headwinds,” noted Ahu Yildirmaz, vice president and co-head of the ADP Research Institute. “Although job losses were previously concentrated among small and midsized businesses, we are now seeing signs of the prolonged impact of the pandemic on large companies as well.”