New data shows small firms hit hardest, even as annual pay rose 4.5%
Private-sector employers in the United States cut 32,000 jobs in September as hiring momentum slowed, even as annual pay growth held steady at 4.5%, according to the latest ADP National Employment Report released Wednesday.
“Despite the strong economic growth we saw in the second quarter, this month’s release further validates what we’ve been seeing in the labour market, that US employers have been cautious with hiring,” said Dr. Nela Richardson, ADP’s chief economist.
Hardest-hit industries and businesses
Job losses were spread unevenly across sectors. Service-providing industries shed 28,000 positions, with the steepest declines in professional and business services (-13,000), leisure and hospitality (-19,000), and financial activities (-9,000). Trade, transportation, and utilities lost 7,000 jobs.
Education and health services were a notable outlier, adding 33,000 jobs, while the information sector gained 3,000. In the goods-producing segment, construction fell by 5,000 and manufacturing by 2,000, while natural resources and mining added 4,000.
Employment fell sharply in the Midwest, where 63,000 jobs were lost, mostly in the East North Central region. By contrast, the Northeast added 21,000 positions, driven largely by gains in the Mid-Atlantic. The West and South recorded modest increases of 15,000 and 3,000 jobs, respectively.
Smaller businesses were hit hardest. Establishments with fewer than 50 employees shed 40,000 jobs, while medium-sized firms lost 20,000. Large companies with 500 or more workers, however, added 33,000 jobs.
Pay growth steady
On wages, the report showed that job-stayers continued to see annual pay growth of 4.5%, unchanged from August. Pay gains for job-changers slowed to 6.6%, down from 7.1% in the previous month.
By industry, financial activities posted the strongest pay growth for job-stayers at 5.2%, while most other sectors ranged between 4.1% and 4.7%. Large and medium-sized firms offered the highest wage increases, averaging 4.8%.
ADP also revised down its August estimate from a gain of 54,000 jobs to a loss of 3,000 following its annual preliminary rebenchmarking.
The monthly report, produced by ADP Research in partnership with the Stanford Digital Economy Lab, offers an independent measure of the labour market based on payroll data from more than 26 million private-sector workers.
The next employment report will be released Nov. 5.
