NEW YORK, (Reuters) — A spike in private-sector jobs in November tentatively raised hopes of improvement in the US labour market while a jump in mortgage applications offered some light in the dimming housing sector.The jobs report from ADP Employer Services, a private employment service, showed US private employers added 158,000 jobs in November and boosted some analysts’ expectations for the government’s reading on November nonfarm payrolls, to be released tomorrow.

Analysts had been forecasting an ADP reading of 125,000, down slightly from October’s 128,000. The ADP data was seen not so much as indicating an improved labour market, but more as a sign key nonfarm payrolls data from the government Friday could exceed expectations.

The Federal Reserve’s policy-making group meets on December 12 to decide interest rate policy, and the jobs report will be one of the last readings on the economy it will see before convening.

“The November employment figures should prove crucial to the Fed, given renewed market concerns of economic weakness,” said Rick MacDonald, director of investment research and analysis at Action Economics in San Francisco.

According to the latest Reuters poll of economists, the US Labor Department’s employment report tomorrow is expected to show 110,000 nonfarm payroll jobs were created in November, up from 92,000 in October. The report counts government as well as private jobs.

“We have to move up the midpoint of our forecast range after (the ADP) data, from our initial 125,000 estimate. We now expect November payrolls to rise about 150,000,” said Ian Shepherdson, chief US economist at High Frequency Economics in Valhalla, New York. However, Shepherdson cautioned not to put too much emphasis on any correlation between ADP and Friday’s payrolls figures.

“ADP tells there is a 90 percent chance payrolls rose by something between zero and about 320,000. This, you might conclude, is not a great deal of use, which is exactly the point: there are no reliable indicators of month-to-month payrolls,” he said. US Treasury debt prices fell after the release of the ADP report, while the dollar climbed.

Separately, the second of five jobs derivatives auctions had traders betting US employers added 85,400 jobs in November. The first auction on the data, Tuesday, had an implied forecast of 82,000.

Investors use the auctions to hedge against unwanted surprises in the nonfarm payrolls report. Traders also use the auctions to speculate on the outcome. Also, the Mortgage Bankers Association said US mortgage applications rose sharply last week, fuelled by a surge in home refinancing loans as interest rates sunk to their lowest levels in more than a year.