Private sector employment increased by 235,000 jobs in December and annual pay was up 7.3 percent year-over-year, according to the December ADP^® National Employment Report™ produced by the ADP Research Institute^® in collaboration with the Stanford Digital Economy Lab (“Stanford Lab“).

The jobs report and pay insights use ADP’s fine-grained anonymized and aggregated payroll data of over 25 million U.S. employees to provide a representative picture of the labor market. The report details the current month’s total private employment change, and weekly job data from the previous month. ADP’s pay measure uniquely captures the earnings of a cohort of almost 10 million employees over a 12-month period.

“The labor market is strong but fragmented, with hiring varying sharply by industry and establishment size,” said Nela Richardson, chief economist, ADP. “Business segments that hired aggressively in the first half of 2022 have slowed hiring and in some cases cut jobs in the last month of the year.”

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

Private employers added 235,000 jobs in December
Job resurgence was seen in the last two months of 2022 led by consumer-facing service industries. Hiring was strong across small and medium establishments while large establishments saw a drop in employment of 151,000 jobs.

Change in U.S. Private Employment:     235,000

Change by Industry Sector

– Goods-producing:     22,000

• Natural resources/mining     -14,000
• Construction     41,000
• Manufacturing     -5,000

– Service-providing:     213,000

• Trade/transportation/utilities     -24,000
• Information     1,000
• Financial activities     -12,000
• Professional/business services     52,000
• Education/health services     42,000
• Leisure/hospitality     123,000
• Other services     31,000

Change by U.S. Regions

– Northeast:     54,000

• New England     2,000
• Middle Atlantic     52,000

– Midwest:     70,000

• East North Central     61,000
• West North Central     9,000

– South:     253,000

• South Atlantic     165,000
• East South Central     19,000
• West South Central     69,000

– West:     -142,000

• Mountain     -119,000
• Pacific     -23,000

Change by Establishment Size

– Small establishments:     195,000

• 1-19 employees     65,000
• 20-49 employees     130,000

– Medium establishments:     191,000

• 50-249 employees     159,000
• 250-499 employees     32,000

– Large establishments:     -151,000

• 500+ employees     -151,000

December saw the lowest pay growth since March 2022
December ushered in the largest decline in pay growth for job stayers in the three-year series history. Leisure and hospitality; trade, transportation and utilities; and information sectors had the sharpest declines in pay gains. Job changers’ pay growth also fell to the lowest level in 10 months.

Median Change in Annual Pay (ADP matched person sample)

– Job-Stayers     7.3%

– Job-Changers     15.2%

Median Change in Annual Pay for Job-Stayers by Industry Sector

– Goods-producing:

• Natural resources/mining     7.8%
• Construction     6.9%
• Manufacturing     7.3%

– Service-providing:

• Trade/transportation/utilities     7.5%
• Information     7.0%
• Financial activities     7.5%
• Professional/business services     6.6%
• Education/health services     7.0%
• Leisure/hospitality     10.1%
• Other services     6.7%

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

– Small firms:                                                                

• 1-19 employees     5.4%
• 20-49 employees     6.9%

– Medium firms:                                                             

• 50-249 employees     7.6%
• 250-499 employees     7.6%

– Large firms:                                                                

• 500+ employees     7.7%

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 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 January 2023 ADP National Employment Report will be released at 8:15 a.m. ET on February 1, 2023.

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