Washington, Jan 31 (IANS): The US private sector added more jobs in January than in the previous month, a leading industry report said Wednesday.

US private companies added 192,000 jobs in January on a seasonally-adjusted basis, up from a revised figure of 185,000 a month earlier, according to the National Employment Report released jointly by Automatic Data Processing (ADP) and Moody's Analytics.

Small and medium businesses accounted for the majority of the employment gains in January, adding roughly 194,000 jobs, while large businesses shed about 2,000 jobs in total, reported Xinhua citing the report.

By sector, employment in the service sector rose by 177,000, and jobs in the goods-producing sector increased by 15,000, primarily driven by an increase in construction jobs.

"The job market is slowly, but steadily, improving," said Mark Zandi, chief economist of Moody's Analytics. "Construction is finally kicking into gear and more than offsetting the weakness in manufacturing."