ADP National Employment Report: Private Sector Employment Increased by 77,000 Jobs in February; Annual Pay was Up 4.7%

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%

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 January total number of jobs added was revised from 183,000 to 186,000. 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 March 2025ADP National Employment Report will be released at 8:15 a.m. ET on April 2, 2025.

About the ADP® National Employment Report™ The ADP National Employment Report is an independent measure of the change in U.S. private employment and pay derived from actual, anonymized payroll data of client companies served by ADP, a leading provider of human capital management solutions. The report is produced by ADP Research in collaboration with the Stanford Digital Economy Lab.

The ADP National Employment Report is broadly distributed to the public each month, free of charge, as part of the company's commitment to offering deeper insights of the U.S. labor market and providing businesses and governments with a source of credible and valuable information.

About ADP Research
The mission of ADP Research is to make the future of work more productive through data-driven discovery. Companies, workers, and policymakers rely on our finely tuned data and unique perspective to make informed decisions that impact workplaces around the world.

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