U.S. Labor Market: Undeterred by Sequestration Fears?

With the tailwinds left over from the minor blip on the economic past that was the sequester still ruffling some feathers, the employment figures released by the payroll processor ADP Research Institute and Moody’s Analytics on Wednesday showed that concerns about the across-the-board federal budgets cuts did not put a brake on hiring.

The labor market is slowly, but surely, trudging forward.

ADP’s National Employment Report revealed that solid job gains were made in February; on a seasonally-adjusted basis, private-sector employers added 198,000 workers to their payrolls from January to February. The gains were not outstanding when compared to the numbers reported for the previous month — in January, job additions amounted to 215,000 — but the increase came in above what economists were predicting. The median forecast of economists polled by Bloomberg called for a gain of 170,000…