Private sector employment increased by 122,000 jobs in December and annual pay saw a 4.6 percent year-over-year increase, according to the December 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.
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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 labor market downshifted to a more modest pace of growth in the final month of 2024, with a slowdown in both hiring and pay gains,” said Nela Richardson, chief economist, ADP. “Health care stood out in the second half of the year, creating more jobs than any other sector.”
December 2024 Report Highlights
View the ADP National Employment Report and interactive charts at www.adpemploymentreport.com.
JOBS REPORT
Private employers added 122,000 jobs in December
Hiring slowed in several industries. Employment in manufacturing shrank for the third straight month.
Change in U.S. Private Employment: 122,000
Change by Industry Sector
– Goods-producing: 10,000
- Natural resources/mining -6,000
- Construction 27,000
- Manufacturing -11,000
– Service-providing: 112,000
- Trade/transportation/utilities 8,000
- Information 5,000
- Financial activities 12,000
- Professional/business services -5,000
- Education/health services 57,000
- Leisure/hospitality 22,000
- Other services 13,000
Change by U.S. Regions
– Northeast: 19,000
- New England 6,000
- Middle Atlantic 13,000
– Midwest: 7,000
- East North Central -2,000
- West North Central 9,000
– South: 19,000
- South Atlantic -1,000
- East South Central 4,000
- West South Central 16,000
– West: 82,000
- Mountain 26,000
- Pacific 56,000
Change by Establishment Size
– Small establishments: 5,000
- 1-19 employees -1,000
- 20-49 employees 6,000
– Medium establishments: 9,000
- 50-249 employees -2,000
- 250-499 employees 11,000
– Large establishments: 97,000
- 500+ employees 97,000
PAY INSIGHTS
Pay gains slowed in December: Year-over-year pay growth for job-stayers slowed to 4.6 percent, the slowest pace of gains since July 2021. Pay growth for job-changers was 7.1 percent, a slight decline from November.
Median Change in Annual Pay (ADP matched person sample)
– Job-Stayers 4.6%
– Job-Changers 7.1%
Median Change in Annual Pay for Job-Stayers by Industry Sector
– Goods-producing:
- Natural resources/mining 3.8%
- Construction 5.1%
- Manufacturing 4.5%
– Service-providing:
- Trade/transportation/utilities 4.4%
- Information 4.4%
- Financial activities 4.9%
- Professional/business services 4.5%
- Education/health services 4.9%
- Leisure/hospitality 4.6%
- Other services 4.7%
Median Change in Annual Pay for Job-Stayers by Firm Size
– Small firms:
- 1-19 employees 3.9%
- 20-49 employees 4.6%
– Medium firms:
- 50-249 employees 4.8%
- 250-499 employees 4.8%
– Large firms:
- 500+ employees 4.6%
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.
The November total number of jobs added remained unchanged at 146,000. The historical data file and weekly data for the previous month are available at https://adpemploymentreport.com/.
