Nov. 1 (UPI) — U.S. businesses added 113,000 jobs in October led by the education and healthcare sectors, which accounted for 40% of the new hires, new data published Wednesday shows.
With 45,000 new jobs, education and healthcare took the top job creator spot from leisure and hospitality where hiring slowed to 17,000 with strong hiring numbers in trade, transportation and utilities and finance indicating a healthy labor market, ADP said in its National Employment Report.
However, while hiring was up 24,000 from September, it fell well short of the 130,000 expected.
ADP’s analysis of the payroll data of 25 million workers found wages grew at their slowest pace in two years. Pay was up 5.7% from October 2022 for existing hires and 8.4% for job changers, the lowest rate of growth since July 2021.
“No single industry dominated hiring this month, and big post-pandemic pay increases seem to be behind us,” said ADP Chief Economist Nela Richardson.
“In all, October’s numbers paint a well-rounded jobs picture. And while the labor market has slowed, it’s still enough to support strong consumer spending.”
Medium-sized companies with between 50 and 249 employees added the most jobs at 96,000, followed by small companies with fewer than 20 employees which added 21,000. Large companies with more than 500 employees added 18,000 jobs while firms with 20-49 employees and 250 and 499 shed 2,000 and 18,000 jobs.
By region, the South added the most jobs at 64,000 followed by the West with 46,000. By contrast, the Midwest lost 13,000 jobs, mainly in the east north-central area that encompasses Illinois, Indiana, Michigan, Ohio and Wisconsin.
The Labor Department’s official nonfarm payrolls report due out Friday, which counts public sector jobs as well as private, is forecast to show the economy added 170,000 new jobs for the month.
Even so, the ADP and Labor Department numbers can show unexpectedly marked variances. ADP’s figure for September was less than one-third of the Labor Department’s estimate of 336,000 jobs added.
