U.S. private-sector companies added a better-than-expected 184,000 jobs during March as worker pay rose at an average annual rate of 5.1%, according to the latest monthly tracking by payroll services provider ADP and Stanford University’s Digital Economy Lab.

Leisure and hospitality led March job gains at 63,000, followed by construction at 33,000, trade and transportation at 29,000 and education and health services at 17,000. Financial services also added 17,000 jobs, while professional and business services posted a decline of 8,000.

“March was surprising not just for the pay gains, but the sectors that recorded them,” ADP Chief Economist Nela Richardson said in a statement Wednesday. “The three biggest increases for job-changers were in construction, financial services and manufacturing.”

Richardson said data showed pay growth accelerating in goods and services industries, even as overall inflation has cooled in recent months. ADP and Stanford analysts base findings on examination of anonymized company payroll data covering more than 25 million U.S. workers.

The ADP-Stanford report is considered a preview of more extensive monthly employment data, including private- and public-sector jobs, expected to be released later this week by the U.S. Department of Labor, including March’s national unemployment rate. February’s jobless rate was 3.9%. 

Amazon plans to cut hundreds of jobs in its Amazon Web Services cloud computing division, adding to a recent wave of technology workforce reductions which includes prior cuts by the e-commerce giant.

Seattle-based Amazon did not disclose specific numbers or locations, but said job cuts will affect AWS workers involved in sales, marketing and development of store technologies.

“We’ve identified a few targeted areas of the organization we need to streamline in order to continue focusing our efforts on the key strategic areas that we believe will deliver maximum impact,” an Amazon Web Services spokesperson said in a statement Wednesday. The company plans to help affected workers transition to new roles in and outside Amazon.

Company officials have reported slowing sales growth in recent quarters for Amazon’s web services division, even as it remains among the Seattle-based company’s most lucrative operations. Amazon announced more than 27,000 job cuts companywide during 2022 and 2023.

The latest reductions came after Amazon said this week it is removing sensor-based shelf technologies, including Just Walk Out, that allowed customers to pay for items without going through a checkout stand at its Amazon Fresh grocery stores. Amazon officials said the cashierless systems also will not be included in new Fresh locations slated to open later this year, as part of ongoing revisions of its in-store payment offerings.

Amazon technologies designed to boost convenience while reducing store labor requirements will continue, including scanners to be placed within shopping carts at some locations in a system known as Dash Carts, the company said.

February’s new orders for manufactured goods increased $8.2 billion or 1.4% from the prior month, signaling a potential revival in consumer and business demand after two straight months of declines, the Commerce Department reported. Orders totaled $576.8 billion for the month, marking a 1% increase from a year earlier.

The government said new orders for manufactured durable goods — items such as appliances and business equipment intended to last more than three years — rose $3.5 billion or 1.3% from the prior month after posting a 6.9% monthly decrease in January. Durable goods orders totaled $277.7 billion in February, up 1.8% from a year earlier.

Computer orders posted a 27.7% year-over-year increase, as construction machinery gained 10.7%, ventilation equipment rose 12.4% and household appliances gained 4.8%

Notable year-over-year decliners for durable goods included ships and boats down 29%, industrial machinery down 12.6% and photographic equipment down 11.9%.