Washington, Jan 6 (IANS): Employment in the US private sector rose sharply in the last month of 2011, with the addition of 325,000 jobs that also brought positive hope for labour market recovery in the new year, a report said.

The National Employment Report released Thursday by the Automatic Data Processing, Inc. (ADP) said the number of new jobs was much higher than the forecast. This was the largest monthly gain since December 2010 and nearly twice the average monthly increase since May when hiring decelerated sharply.

Small and medium businesses accounted for the majority of employment gains, adding 288,000 jobs in total, while large businesses increased 37,000 jobs, Xinhua reported.

Employment in the service-providing sector rose by 273,000 in December, up from an increase of 176,000 in November. Jobs in the goods-producing sector only added 52,000, the report said.

Economists said the employment gain was largely driven by holiday season hiring because companies, especially in the service sector, added more temporary jobs to deal with expanding consumption during the holiday season.

The report, created in partnership with Macroeconomic Advisers, LLC, was derived from actual payroll data. It measures the change in total non-farm private employment each month.