While the report is considered less important than the Labor Department’s measure of job growth, which will be released tomorrow, the strong number took many in the market by surprise.

“That came out of left field, huh?” said Joshua Shapiro, chief United States economist at the research firm MFR. Economists had expected a gain of about 70,000 jobs for November. “It’s not a dead lock that we’re going to get a good payroll number, but it certainly caused me to raise my estimates.”

The government’s report on November employment will be the last piece of important data before the Fed meets on Tuesday, when policy makers are expected to cut interest rates by at least a quarter-point. Fed officials have hinted that they are open to lowering rates to help avert a recession, but a sign of underlying strength — like a big gain in jobs — could persuade them to take a less aggressive stance.

“The economy might prove more resilient than a lot of the doomsayers have been saying,” said Marc Chandler, who oversees currency strategy at the bank Brown Brothers Harriman. “It’s not like the U.S. economy is falling off the edge of the cliff.”

Futures contracts on the Fed’s actions showed investors pulling back yesterday from their expectations for a half-point decrease in interest rates. Still, the market sees a cut as certain.

Some economists were skeptical of the A.D.P. report, which showed that job losses in manufacturing and construction, both hit hard by the housing downturn, had slowed to a trickle. Payrolls at financial firms appeared to increase.

“If you look at other evidence about the labor market, it points to weakening,” said Mr. Shapiro of MFR, noting that sentiment surveys have suggested a bleaker employment outlook among consumers. “There’s something funky in these numbers, but they are what they are.”

Joel Prakken, the chairman of the consulting company Macroeconomic Advisers, who developed the A.D.P. report, stood by his results. Referring to the job losses, he said: “This is a much smaller decline than the average decline of the last 18 months. We could be approaching the end of that contraction.”

http://www.nytimes.com/2007/12/06/business/06econ.html?ref=business 

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