U.S. private employers added 175,000 jobs in January, close to analysts' expectations, a report by a payrolls processor showed on Wednesday.

Economists surveyed by Reuters had forecast the ADP National Employment Report would show a gain of 180,000 jobs, with estimates ranging from a low of 125,000 to a high of 210,000.

December's increase in jobs was revised down to 227,000 from the initially reported 238,000. The report is jointly developed with Moody's Analytics.

The ADP report comes two days ahead of the government's nonfarm payroll report, a measure of the labor market that is more comprehensive and includes both public and private sector employment.

December's initial reading from ADP failed to foreshadow accurately the Labor Department's report, which showed that just 74,000 jobs were created in December. That was the lowest job creation total in nearly three years, but was largely blamed on the month's bout of freezing weather across the country.

This time around, analysts are looking for the government data to show that 185,000 jobs were created in January, all of them in the private sector; the private payrolls forecast is also 185,000, according to a Reuters survey.