ADP: Private Employers Add 86,000 Jobs in October, Topping Forecasts as September Is Revised Down

U.S. private employers added 86,000 jobs in October, payroll processor ADP said Wednesday, topping forecasts that ranged from 67,000 in an Investing.com tally to 75,000 in a Dow Jones survey. The print matched September's total after ADP revised that month down to 86,000 from 90,000, which is why one widely carried headline described October as matching the previous figure.

Service providers did nearly all of the hiring, adding 82,000 jobs against 4,000 in goods-producing industries. Trade, transportation and utilities led with 39,000, followed by education and health at 28,000 and leisure and hospitality at 19,000, according to ADP's release, while professional and business services lost 27,000 jobs, its third straight monthly decline. Hiring was spread across company sizes, with small, medium and large employers adding 28,000, 33,000 and 24,000 jobs respectively.

Pay growth held steady. Median base pay rose 3.2% year over year and gross pay rose 4.7%. Job-changers saw gross pay climb 7.6%, which ADP chief economist Nela Richardson attributed to "a combination of bonuses, overtime, and more hours in addition to higher base pay," adding that earnings growth for these workers hit its fastest pace since March 2024.

The next test is Friday's Labor Department report, where Investing.com put the consensus at 63,000 nonfarm jobs with unemployment holding at 4.2%. A solid but unspectacular private-sector print keeps attention on whether hiring is broadening beyond services, and on how the Federal Reserve reads a labor market that is improving slowly rather than overheating. ADP's next report is due December 2.