Jobs are up and so is pay, according to the August ADP National Employment Report, with the private sector adding 54,000 jobs in August and upping paychecks 4.4% year-over-year.
The August ADP National Employment Report produced by ADP Research is done in collaboration with the Stanford Digital Economy Lab (Stanford Lab). The Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) reported a bigger-than-expected drop in job openings in July.
Unemployment Claims Also Up
Initial claims for unemployment benefits rose to 237,000 in the week through Aug. 30, up 8,000 from an unrevised 229,000 the prior week.
“Continuing claims by job-losers who have yet to find new work fell 4,000 to 1.64 million in the week through Aug. 23, after the prior week’s figure was revised down by 10,000,” according to the ADP report.
The jobs report and pay insights use ADP’s data to offer a “representative and high-frequency picture of the private-sector labor market,” according to a company statement.
“The year started with strong job growth, but that momentum has been whipsawed by uncertainty,” said ADP Chief Economist Dr. Nela Richardson.
“A variety of things could explain the hiring slowdown, including labor shortages, skittish consumers, and AI disruptions,” Dr. Richardson added.
Construction = Hospitality + Leisure
Leisure and hospitality jobs went up by 50,000 and construction by 16,000, the ADP report indicated. Employment in manufacturing, education, and health services took a hit, which eliminated 17,000 jobs in the trade, transportation, and utilities sectors.
Over 7,000 jobs were lost in in manufacturing, and employment in education and health services dropped by 12,000, according to the ADP report.
Economists had forecast modest payroll gains in the official August 2025 jobs report, but the actual numbers were weaker. The U.S. added 22,000 nonfarm payroll jobs in August, falling short of economists’ forecasts, which were around 75,000 to 80,000, per reports.
The unemployment rate is expected to tick up to 4.3% as 12-month average hourly earnings growth slips to 3.8% from 3.9%, per reports.
About The ADP National Employment Report
The ADP National Employment Report is an independent measure of the labor market based on the anonymized weekly payroll data of more than 26 million private-sector employees in the United States. ADP’s Pay Insights captures nearly 14.8 million individual pay change observations each month.
August 2025 Report Highlights View the ADP National Employment Report and interactive charts at www.adpemploymentreport.com.
