Bloomberg (12/05/12) Michelle Jamrisko

Companies added 118,000 employees in November, following a downward revised 157,000 gain in October, according to the ADP Research Institute. Economists surveyed by Bloomberg had forecasted a 125,000 increase in November. However, Hurricane Sandy curbed payrolls by about 86,000, the report estimated. Hiring plans were delayed by companies in the mid-Atlantic, a region of the country that employs about 14% of U.S. employees, as companies recovered from the hurricane.

“The manufacturing, retailing, leisure and hospitality, and temporary help industries were hit particularly hard by the storm,” says Mark Zandi, chief economist at Moody’s Analytics Inc. Moody’s produces the figures with ADP.