ROSELAND, N.J., March 5, 2025 /PRNewswire/- Private sector employment increased by 77,000 jobs in February and annual pay was up 4.7 percent year-over-year, according to the February 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. As of January 2025, ADP’s Pay Insights measure captures nearly 14.8 million individual pay change observations each month, up from nearly 10 million when it launched.
“Policy uncertainty and a slowdown in consumer spending might have led to layoffs or a slowdown in hiring last month,” said Nela Richardson, chief economist, ADP. “Our data, combined with other recent indicators, suggests a hiring hesitancy among employers as they assess the economic climate ahead.”
February 2025 Report Highlights
View the ADP National Employment Report and interactive charts at www.adpemploymentreport.com.
JOBS REPORT
Private employers added 77,000 jobs in February
Hiring slowed to the smallest level of gains since July, with trade and transportation, health care and education, and information showing job losses. Small business employment also fell.
Change in U.S. Private Employment: 77,000
Change by Industry Sector
– Goods-producing: 42,000
- Natural resources/mining -2,000
- Construction 26,000
- Manufacturing 18,000
– Service-providing: 36,000
- Trade/transportation/utilities -33,000
- Information -14,000
- Financial activities 26,000
- Professional/business services 27,000
- Education/health services -28,000
- Leisure/hospitality 41,000
- Other services 17,000
Change by U.S. Regions
– Northeast: 55,000
- New England 34,000
- Middle Atlantic 21,000
– Midwest: 56,000
- East North Central 45,000
- West North Central 11,000
– South: -12,000
- South Atlantic -26,000
- East South Central 32,000
- West South Central -18,000
– West: -27,000
- Mountain -2,000
- Pacific -25,000
Change by Establishment Size
– Small establishments: -12,000
- 1-19 employees -17,000
- 20-49 employees 5,000
– Medium establishments: 46,000
- 50-249 employees 15,000
- 250-499 employees 31,000
– Large establishments: 37,000
- 500+ employees 37,000
PAY INSIGHTS
Pay gains remained stable in February
For job-changers, year-over-year pay gains slowed slightly, from 6.8 percent in January to 6.7 percent. Pay gains for job-stayers were flat at 4.7 percent.
Median Change in Annual Pay (ADP matched person sample)
– Job-Stayers 4.7%
– Job-Changers 6.7%
Median Change in Annual Pay for Job-Stayers by Industry Sector
– Goods-producing:
- Natural resources/mining 4.4%
- Construction 4.9%
- Manufacturing 4.8%
– Service-providing:
- Trade/transportation/utilities 4.4%
- Information 4.2%
- Financial activities 5.1%
- Professional/business services 4.5%
- Education/health services 4.9%
- Leisure/hospitality 4.8%
- Other services 4.5%
Median Change in Annual Pay for Job-Stayers by Firm Size
– Small firms:
- 1-19 employees 2.8%
- 20-49 employees 4.4%
– Medium firms:
- 50-249 employees 4.9%
- 250-499 employees 5.1%
– Large firms:
- 500+ employees 5.0%
