Companies in US added 214,000 jobs in February

Companies in the United States added a solid 214,000 jobs in February, maintaining a strong pace of employment growth, payroll firm ADP reported Wednesday.

ADP trimmed its figures for January jobs growth from 205,000 to 193,000.

"Despite the turmoil in the global financial markets, the American job machine remains in high gear," said Mark Zandi, chief economist of Moody's Analytics.

"Energy and manufacturing remain blemishes on the job market, but other sectors continue to add strongly to payrolls. Full-employment is fast approaching."

The February figures bested analyst expectations for private-sector job gains of 190,000.

Companies in professional/business services added 59,000 jobs and construction companies added 27,000 positions.

But manufacturing continued to struggle with the weakness in oil prices, shedding 9,000 jobs during the month.

"The ADP data continue to show no sign of any significant slowing on a trend basis," said Jim O'Sullivan, chief US economist at High Frequency Economics.

"The continued strength is consistent with the message from jobless claims."

The ADP report comes ahead of Friday's US Department of Labor February jobs report. Analysts expect the US economy added 190,000 jobs during the month and that unemployment held steady at 4.9 percent.