ADP News Release (04/02/14)

Automatic Data Processing estimates that 191,000 employees were hired for private-sector jobs in March, up from an upwardly revised 178,000 in February. A Wall Street consensus forecast had estimated that 195,000 employees were hired.

Goods-producing employment rose by 28,000 jobs in March, slightly faster than an upwardly revised pace of 25,000 in February. Most of the gains came from the construction industry, which added 20,000 jobs over the month compared with an average of 16,000 during the prior three months.

Service-providing employment rose by 164,000 jobs in March, up from an upwardly revised 153,000 in February. Professional and business services contributed the most to growth in service-providing industries, adding 53,000 jobs, slightly more than the 49,000 in February.

Daily Bankruptcy Review (04/01/14) Jacqueline Palank

The Select Staffing Family of Cos., based in Santa Barbara, CA, has filed a prepackaged Chapter 11 bankruptcy reorganization plan that will allow the company to pay its creditors and continue funding its business. The company’s existing lenders will provide $50 million, pending court approval.

Meanwhile, in connection with the reorganization, Select Staffing will acquire Decca Consulting, a staffing firm specializing in the energy business. It also will obtain the right to purchase Butler America Inc., a staffing firm that specializes in technical services.

CareerBuilder News Release (04/01/14)

ASA corporate partner CareerBuilder has announced that it is acquiring Broadbean, a provider of job distribution, candidate sourcing, and big data analytics software. CareerBuilder purchased Broadbean from Daily Mail and General Trust PLC for an undisclosed sum. Broadbean posts jobs on more than 6,000 job boards and social networks in 183 countries and has more than 60,000 users. The company distributes more than two million jobs and generates more than 10 million job applications each month.

Wall Street Journal (04/01/14) Ben Leubsdorg; Kathleen Madigan

Manufacturing in the U.S. increased slightly in March after a weak winter, indicating the economy is on steadier footing at the start of the second quarter. The Institute for Supply Management’s most recent national gauge of factory activity rose to 53.7 in March from 53.2 in February. A reading above 50 indicates expansion.

However, the improvements are short of the economic upturn many forecasters expected by this time of the year. Particularly troubling is that employment growth slowed to its lowest level since June 2013, and while production saw its largest month-to-month increase since mid-2009, it was still below its December 2013 level. “A lot of this is still weather-related, and because production is so strong and the backlog is so high, I’m pretty sure that [factory hiring] will pick up in the coming months,” says Bradley Holcomb, chairman of ISM’s manufacturing business survey committee.

TechCrunch (04/01/14) Sarah Perez

The TaskRabbit for Business web portal, aimed at companies seeking temporary employees, has disappeared. TaskRabbit says the company still serves business customers, but users have been migrated to a “more unified product experience,” with the web portal links redirecting users to the main TaskRabbit sign-up form. Combining the consumer and business experiences gives them both “the same posting experience on TaskRabbit,” says a company representative.