Private sector employment increased by 99,000 jobs in August and annual pay was up 4.8 percent year-over-year, according to the August ADP^® National Employment Report™ produced by ADP Research in collaboration with the Stanford Digital Economy Lab ("Stanford 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.

"The job market's downward drift brought us to slower-than-normal hiring after two years of outsized growth," said Nela Richardson, chief economist, ADP. "The next indicator to watch is wage growth, which is stabilizing after a dramatic post-pandemic slowdown."

August 2024 Report Highlights*

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

JOBS REPORT

Private employers added 99,000 jobs in August
The labor market continued to cool in August. Job creation among private employers slowed for the fifth straight month and wage growth was stable.

Change in U.S. Private Employment:     99,000

Change by Industry Sector

- Goods-producing:     27,000

• Natural resources/mining     8,000

• Construction     27,000

• Manufacturing     -8,000

- Service-providing:     72,000

• Trade/transportation/utilities     14,000

• Information     -4,000

• Financial activities     18,000

• Professional/business services     -16,000

• Education/health services     29,000

• Leisure/hospitality     11,000

• Other services     20,000

Change by U.S. Regions

- Northeast:     24,000

• New England     -6,000

• Middle Atlantic     30,000

- Midwest:     7,000

• East North Central     0

• West North Central     7,000

- South:     55,000

• South Atlantic     4,000

• East South Central     3,000

• West South Central     48,000

- West:     20,000

• Mountain     8,000
• Pacific     12,000

Change by Establishment Size

- Small establishments:     -9,000

• 1-19 employees     3,000

• 20-49 employees     -12,000

- Medium establishments:     68,000

• 50-249 employees     32,000

• 250-499 employees     36,000

- Large establishments:     42,000

• 500+ employees     42,000

PAY INSIGHTS

Pay gains were unchanged in August

Year-over-year pay gains were flat in August, remaining at 4.8 percent for job-stayers and 7.3 percent for job-changers.

Median Change in Annual Pay (ADP matched person sample)

- Job-Stayers     4.8%

- Job-Changers     7.3%

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

- Goods-producing:                                                       

• Natural resources/mining     3.9%

• Construction     5.2%

• Manufacturing     4.7%

- Service-providing:                                               

• Trade/transportation/utilities     4.5%

• Information     4.5%

• Financial activities     5.0%

• Professional/business services     4.7%

• Education/health services     5.1%

• Leisure/hospitality     4.9%

• Other services     4.9%

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

- Small firms:                                                                

• 1-19 employees     4.0%

• 20-49 employees     4.7%

- Medium firms:                                                             

• 50-249 employees     5.0%

• 250-499 employees     4.9%

- Large firms:                                                                

• 500+ employees     4.8%

To see Pay Insights by U.S. State, Gender, and Age for Job-Stayers, visit here:

* Sum of components may not equal total due to rounding.

ADP conducted a rebenchmarking of its employment data in August based on full-year 2023 results from the Quarterly Census of Employment and Wages (QCEW). This resulted in a decline of 9,000 jobs in the August ADP National Employment Report. ADP's full-year benchmarking will take place in February 2025 with the publication of the January 2025 report.

The July total of jobs added was revised from 122,000 to 111,000. The historical data file and weekly data for the previous month are available at https://adpemploymentreport.com/.

To subscribe to monthly email alerts or obtain additional information about the ADP National Employment Report, including employment and pay data, interactive charts, methodology, and a calendar of release dates, please visit https://adpemploymentreport.com/.    

The September 2024 ADP National Employment Report will be released at 8:15 a.m. ET on October 2, 2024.