Overview
- ADP reported on Wednesday that U.S. private employers added 38,000 jobs in August, the smallest monthly gain since January.
- Most of the ADP gain came from education and health services, while manufacturing and professional and business services lost jobs.
- Large firms drove nearly all hiring, with companies of 500 or more employees accounting for about 34,000 of the new positions.
- Wage growth held modestly steady, with base pay up roughly 3 percent year over year and broader measures of pay up about 4.4–4.7 percent.
- Other labor signals show low layoffs but weak hiring: initial jobless claims were 206,000 for the latest week and Challenger reported 52,881 announced cuts in August, leaving the market in a low-hire, low-fire steady state and putting emphasis on Friday’s official BLS reading and inflation data for policy guidance.