Paychecks Increased 4.7% and 143,000 Jobs Added in September, Says ADP

Private sector employment increased by 143,000 jobs in September and annual pay was up 4.7 percent year-over-year, according to the September ADP National Employment Report produced by ADP Research in collaboration with the Stanford Digital Economy Lab.

The ADP National Employment Report is an independent measure and high-frequency view of the private-sector labor market based on actual, anonymized payroll data of more than 25 million U.S. employees.

The jobs report and pay insights use ADP’s fine-grained anonymized and aggregated payroll data to provide a representative picture of the private-sector labor market. The report details the current month’s total private employment change, and weekly job data from the previous month. Because the underlying ADP payroll databases are continuously updated, the report provides a high-frequency, near real-time measure of U.S. employment. This measure reflects the number of employees on ADP client payrolls (Payroll Employment) to provide a richer understanding of the labor market. ADP’s pay measure uniquely captures the earnings of a cohort of almost 10 million employees over a 12-month period.

“Stronger hiring didn’t require stronger pay growth last month,” said Nela Richardson, chief economist, ADP. “Typically, workers who change jobs see faster pay growth. But their premium over job-stayers shrank to 1.9 percent, matching a low we last saw in January.”

September 2024 Report Highlights*

View the ADP National Employment Report and interactive charts at www.adpemploymentreport.com.

JOBS REPORT

Private employers added 143,000 jobs in September
Job creation showed a widespread rebound after a five-month slowdown. Only one sector, information, lost jobs. Manufacturing added jobs for the first time since April.

Change in U.S. Private Employment: 143,000

Change by Industry Sector

– Goods-producing: 42,000

Natural resources/mining 14,000
Construction 26,000
Manufacturing 2,000

– Service-providing: 101,000

Trade/transportation/utilities 14,000
Information –10,000
Financial activities 2,000
Professional/business services 20,000
Education/health services 24,000
Leisure/hospitality 34,000
Other services 17,000

Change by U.S. Regions

– Northeast: 32,000

New England 7,000
Middle Atlantic 25,000

– Midwest: 26,000

East North Central 18,000
West North Central 8,000

– South: 61,000

South Atlantic 27,000
East South Central –9,000
West South Central 43,000

– West: 22,000

Mountain 1,000
Pacific 21,000

Change by Establishment Size

– Small establishments: -8,000

1-19 employees –13,000
20-49 employees 5,000

– Medium establishments: 64,000

50-249 employees 49,000
250-499 employees 15,000

– Large establishments: 86,000

500+ employees 86,000

PAY INSIGHTS

Pay gains slowed in September
Year-over-year pay gains for job-stayers fell slightly in September to 4.7 percent. For job-changers the decline was greater, falling from 7.3 percent in August to 6.6 percent.

Median Change in Annual Pay (ADP matched person sample)

– Job-Stayers 4.7%

– Job-Changers 6.6%

Median Change in Annual Pay for Job-Stayers by Industry Sector

– Goods-producing:

Natural resources/mining 3.6%
Construction 5.1%
Manufacturing 4.6%

– Service-providing:

Trade/transportation/utilities 4.5%
Information 4.4%
Financial activities 4.9%
Professional/business services 4.6%
Education/health services 5.1%
Leisure/hospitality 4.7%
Other services 4.8%

Median Change in Annual Pay for Job-Stayers by Firm Size

– Small firms:

1-19 employees 4.0%
20-49 employees 4.6%

– Medium firms:

50-249 employees 5.0%
250-499 employees 4.8%

– Large firms:

500+ employees 4.7%

Payroll