Private sector employment increased by 89,000 jobs in September and annual pay was up 5.9 percent year-over-year, according to the September ADP® National Employment ReportTM produced by the ADP Research Institute® 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.

“We are seeing a steepening decline in jobs this month,” said Nela Richardson, chief economist ADP.

“Additionally, we are seeing a steady decline in wages in the past 12 months.”

September 2023 Report Highlights

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

JOBS REPORT

Private employers added 89,000 jobs in September

September showed the slowest pace of growth since January 2021, when private employers shed jobs.
Large establishments drove the slowdown, losing 83,000 jobs and wiping out gains they made in August.

Change in U.S. Private Employment: 89,000

Change by Industry Sector

 

Goods-producing:  8,000

• Natural resources/mining   4,000
• Construction   16,000
•  Manufacturing   -12,000

 

 Service-providing:     81,000

• Trade/transportation/utilities   -13,000
• Information   1,000
• Financial activities   17,000
• Professional/business services   -32,000
• Education/health services   10,000
• Leisure/hospitality   92,000
• Other services   6,000

 

• Change by U.S. Regions

 

• Northeast: 34,000
• New England -1,000
• Middle Atlantic 35,000

 

• Midwest: 2,000
• East North Central 0
• West North Central 2,000

 

• South: -16,000
• South Atlantic 43,000
• East South Central 15,000
• West South Central -74,000

 

• West: 66,000
• Mountain 9,000
• Pacific 57,000

 

Change by Establishment Size

• Small establishments: 95,000
• 1-19 employees 67,000
• 20-49 employees 28,000

 

• Medium establishments: 72,000
• 100-249 employees 55,000
• 250-499 employees 17,000

 

• Large establishments: -83,000
• 500+ employees -83,000

 

• PAY INSIGHTSPay growth slowed again in September
  Job stayers saw a 5.9 percent year-over-year pay increase in September, marking the 12th straight
  month of slowing growth. Pay gains also shrank for job changers, to 9 percent, down from 9.7 percent in
  August.

 

• Median Change in Annual Pay (ADP matched person sample)
• Job-Stayers 5.9%
• Job-Changers 9.0%Median Change in Annual Pay for Job-Stayers by Industry Sector

 

• Goods-producing:

 

• Natural resources/mining 5.5%
• Construction 6.0%
• Manufacturing 5.4%

 

• Service-providing:

 

• Trade/transportation/utilities 5.7%
• Information 5.5%
• Financial activities 6.2%
• Professional/business services 5.8%
• Education/health services 6.4%
• Leisure/hospitality 6.7%
• Other services 5.9%

 

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

 

• Small firms:
• 1-19 employees 5.0%
• 20-49 employees 5.9%

• Medium firms:
• 50-249 employees 6.1%
• 250-499 employees 6.0%

• Large firms:
• 500+ employees 6.0%

 

• 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 August total of jobs added was revised from 177,000 to 180,000. The historical data file, and weekly data for the previous month, is 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 October 2023 ADP National Employment Report will be released at 8:15 a.m. ET on November 1,
2023.