Private sector employment increased by 122,000 jobs in December and annual pay was up 4.6 percent year-over-year, 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.

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/.

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 January 2025 ADP National Employment Report will be released at 8:15 a.m. ET on February 5, 2025.