Private-sector employment increased by 135,000 jobs from August to September, according to the September ADP National Employment Report.
Upon release of the new figures, the Wall Street Journal reported that “while private employers in the nonfarm sector added more jobs in September than economists expected, the pace of job creation remains muted” compared with last year.
“The job market has shown signs of a slowdown,” said Ahu Yildirmaz, Vice President and Co-Head of the ADP Research Institute. “The average monthly job growth for the past three months is 145,000 down from 214,000 for the same time period last year.”
While technology has led hiring since the Great Recession, it is not likely that an economic slowdown will affect IT hiring, said Harley Lippman, Founder and CEO of Genesis10, recently on Cheddar Business, explaining that the term “permanent employee” is a misnomer. As Lippman sees it, while companies may reduce headcount during an economic slowdown, they will hire contractors because work in digital transformation, artificial intelligence, cybersecurity and other emerging technologies will still need to get done. A variable cost for Wall Street, companies will use temporary IT workers, he said.
The ADP National Employment Report® is published monthly by the ADP Research Institute® in close collaboration with Moody's Analytics and its experienced team of labor market researchers. The ADP National Employment Report provides a monthly snapshot of U.S. Nonfarm Private Employment based on actual transactional payroll data.
The report breaks down Total U.S. Nonfarm Private Employment by Sector and Company Size. All are worth reviewing each month (and tracking in a time series) to get a complete picture of what's happening and how job market conditions are trending in your business sector. Here are the three stats from the most recent report that you need to know:
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Services Companies Contribute Most to Growth
The services-providing sector added 127,000 jobs in September with many of the jobs coming from the education and health (42,000), trade/transportation/utilities (28,000) and professional/business services (20,000) sectors. None of the services sectors tracked lost jobs in September.
- Large Businesses Continue to Hire
The nation’s largest businesses (more than 1,000) employees hired the most new workers in September: 52,000, and while medium businesses also created jobs (39,000), the smallest of small businesses only added another 4,000 to the economy.
Mark Zandi, Chief Economist of Moody’s Analytics, added that, “businesses have turned more cautious in their hiring. Small businesses have become especially hesitant. If businesses pull back any further unemployment will begin to rise.”
- Manufacturing Anemic
The goods-producing sector created a total of 8,000 jobs, with construction adding 9,000 and manufacturing 2,000. The natural resources/mining sector lost 3,000 jobs. Despite growth in the overall economy for the 125th consecutive month, the latest Manufacturing ISM Report on Business shows the manufacturing sector contracting in September. Timothy R. Fiore, CPSM, C.P.M., Chair of the Institute for Supply Management Manufacturing Business Survey Committee, attributes the disparity to global trade.
According to the ADP National Employment Report, franchise employment grew in September by 5,800 jobs.
The matched sample used to develop the ADP National Employment Report was derived from ADP payroll data, which represents 411,000 U.S. clients employing nearly 24 million workers in the U.S. The August total of private-sector jobs added was revised down from 195,000 to 157,000.
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