Survey: November Hiring Slumps Due to Sandy

A private survey shows that US businesses added fewer workers in November, in part because Superstorm Sandy shut down factories, retail stores, and other companies. Payroll processor ADP says employers added 118,000 jobs last month. That's below October's total of 157,000, which was revised lower. Moody's Analytics' chief economist says the storm cut payrolls by 86,000 jobs.

Excluding the effects of the storm, "the job market turned in a good performance during the month," he adds. ADP is calculating job gains with a different methodology than it had previously used, so the new report covers more businesses, but excludes government job growth. The Labor Department will offer a more complete picture of October hiring on Friday. (More hiring stories.)